Manchester City vs. Southampton: Pre-match talking points

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MARCH 08: Josep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City (R) and Mark Hughes, Manager of Stoke City (L) shake hands during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Stoke City at Etihad Stadium on March 8, 2017 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /

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KHARKOV, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 23: Gabriel Jesus of Manchester City in action during the Group F match of the UEFA Champions League between FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Manchester City at Metalist Stadium on October 23, 2018 in Kharkov, Ukraine. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /

Damage limitation

Southampton come into this game just a point off the bottom three, with both Fulham and Huddersfield still yet to play as well at the time of writing.

With that in mind it’s far to say that the Saints could be in for another relegation scrap this season, especially as they still have some tricky fixtures ahead of them including today’s match against the Citizens.

Southampton have conceded 14 times in their ten games so far and will want to keep that figure as low as possible to have the best chance of survival, and that means keeping the scoreline down today.

If Hughes’ side concede four or five it could easily come back to bite them at a later date, so damage limitation will be massive this afternoon.