England Premier League
Saturday 22nd January 2022
Kick off at 5:30pm GMT
Venue: St Mary's Stadium
Match Preview:
Southampton are doing well in mid table and have 24 points and it feels almost certain that the club will not be threatened with a relegation fight this season. Behind the scenes Ralph Hasenhuttl is working hard with the players he has, and all will be rather calm within the squad. At the same time European football looks distant for next season so the Saints objective has to be to try and push as high as they can and finish at least in the top 10 and they are only one point from doing so.
The Saints recent good form ended in their last game where they saw a 4 game unbeaten run come to an end against Wolves in a 3-1 loss away from home. The clubs last home game finished in a fantastic 4-1 battering of Brentford and home seems to be where the Saints are most comfortable and from their 24 points so far they have won 15 in front of their fans.
It’s got to the stage where if Manchester City do not win the league it will go down as one of the biggest surprises in Premier League history, this is how dominant the club have been. They just keep winning and winning and clearly there was a shift in their mental attitude when they lost against Crystal Palace at home back in October because since then they have won every game. No club in the league has this type of consistency.
City come into this game a whopping 11 points in front of 2nd placed Liverpool and 12 points in front of the European champions Chelsea and they have a game in hand over the Blues. Talking of Chelsea it was them that City beat 1-0 in their last game and it was a huge victory which effectively eliminated Thomas Tuchel’s side from this title race.
Not surprisingly the champions have the best away record in the league with 9 wins from 11 played and have scored 22 goals and conceded just seven.
Team News:
Southampton: Moussa Djenepo is on international duty. There has been no update on Valentino Livramento’s knee injury but he should be considered out long term. Alex McCarthy is out with a hamstring and William Smallbone has a calf injury and remains out.
Manchester City: Riyad Mahrez is on international duty, Oleksandr Zinchenko has an on going knock and won’t make this game.
Southampton vs Man City Head to Head:
Last season Manchester City won this fixture 1-0.
Earlier in the season in the reverse fixture this game finished 0-0.
In the last 12 meetings Southampton has just 1 victory.
3 of the last four meetings has ended under 1.5 goals.
Southampton vs Man City Prediction:
Manchester City are huge odds on to win this game and not many will be backing them to do so. What we have seen from these recent fixtures are dominant displays by Guardiola’s side but on the whole the games have been very close. Southampton have shown some steel lately especially at home and we don’t expect this to be all one way traffic.
Man City will probably win this game, granted, but with so little value on the win, we will go for the Man City win at half time to increase the odds as they should still be dominant from the first whistle.
As for goalscorers there are of course a whole plethora out there for City but we will be backing Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian was out of form towards the end of last year but has found it again and really seems to be enjoying his football.
Southampton vs Man City Betting Tips:
Half time result (Man City) at 1.72
Anytime goalscorer: Kevin De Bruyne at 2.50
Half Time Correct Score: 1-0 to Manchester City at 3.50
© Copyright topfootballtipster.com 2019
