Manchester City crash and burn at St. Mary's Stadium
Manchester City gifted Southampton a couple of easy goals, and did very little to stop the third, allowing the home side to pull slightly clear of the relegation zone, and Manchester United the opportunity to pull further clear when they play Everton on Sunday evening. It was a below par performance overall from the reigning champions, with no pressure applied towards the end of the game, and will go down as a day to forget for them. For the Saints, however, it was their first win this season against a team in the top half of the table, and a remarkable first victory in charge for Mauricio Pochettino.
It was a disastrous start to the game for the title contenders, as they found themselves trailing by a goal at St. Mary’s stadium as early as in the 7th minute, owing to a Jason Puncheon goal. Gareth Barry found himself dispossessed at the halfway line in the middle of an attack, leaving City exposed at the back, and Zabaleta was caught out of position with no real choice available to him. This saw the initial effort from Rodriguez repealed by the collective effort of the City defence and Joe Hart, but the loose ball fell to Puncheon and was duly dispatched home by the midfielder.
The reigning champions found themselves in dire straits soon after when a howler from Joe Hart allowed the relegation threatened side to double their lead just past the twenty minute mark. A clever cut inside from the right flank by Rickie Lambert allowed the striker to release an effort at goal, which was straight at Joe Hart. Instead of dealing with the ball in a straightforward manner, Hart let it bounce off him, in the six yard area, and was helpless when an advancing Steven Davis absolutely rollicked it home. It was the second goal of this Premier League campaign for the midfielder, and his second against Manchester City.
The game continued to build in sensational fashion with Southampton having the better of the chances, but City made theirs count through Edin Dzeko to halve their deficit just before the 40-minute mark. A quick break from the men in blue saw Pablo Zabaleta square the ball to Edin Dzeko who made no mistake from within the box to take his league tally to 11 for the season. It was an excellent improvised finish from the Bosnian striker who had been involved in the move from the very beginning, although Boruc could have done much better by not committing himself as early as he did. There were a couple of close calls for Southampton with Yoshida and Schneiderlin coming close, while David Silva nearly equalized for his team, but the score remained unchanged.
Southampton had very strong penalty claims waved away by Martin Atkinson at the end of two minutes of added time, when Yaya Toure seemed to have impeded Davis in the box, making absolutely no effort to get the ball, but a corner was what the referee would award. Three goals as the teams headed into the second half, with the promise of a lot more to come.
Rickie Lambert nearly set up a third goal for Southampton when his lay-off was blazed forcefully over by Puncheon, before another move bore more fruit. A similar ball across the box by Lambert, from the left flank, was inexplicably directed towards his own goal by Gareth Barry, under no real pressure, making it 3 – 1 to Soton. While the home team continued to apply pressure on the second placed side, it was Aguero who had the next real chance of the game, with a looped ball syncing perfectly with his run, but saw his effort deflected wide of goal by Boruc.
Boruc was in the thick of things yet again as City began to apply pressure towards the final quarter of an hour. A good cross into the box saw a scramble ensue, with Yaya Toure nearly getting to poke the ball home, but it was Boruc who got there first, and smothered the ball, allowing his defenders some relief. The remainder of the game was surprisingly easy for Southampton to see out, as Manchester City simply failed to come up with the goods under pressure, not even remotely threatening to score. 3 – 1 to the home side, and a good result for Manchester United, more than anyone else.
Result: Southampton (Jason Puncheon 7’, Steven Davis 22’, Gareth Barry (OG) 48’) 3 – 1 Manchester City (Edin Dzeko 39’)