Southampton vs Man City team news: Two Saints return, five could be out

Southampton will welcome winger Moussa Djenepo and defender Jack Stephens back from suspension for Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Manchester City.

Saints’ win over Watford last weekend was the last of a three-game suspension for Djenepo after he was sent off against Newcastle back in March, whilst Stephens served his one-game ban after a red card versus Arsenal more recently.

Both players will come back into contention for places in the starting line-up tomorrow, but five other Saints players look set to be unavailable.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Sofiane Boufal both missed last weekend’s 3-1 victory against Watford and will not be back this time around, whilst Jannik Vestergaard, Yan Valery and Nathan Tella will also join them on the sidelines.

Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl did not go into detail about the injury problems for each of the five players but emphasised how this is a “busy time” for his team – meaning that squad management will be a vital factor between now and the end of the campaign.

Most importantly, Saints look to be covered in the injured players’ positions for the meeting with City.

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Jack Stephens will most likely come back into Vestergaard’s role, whilst Oriol Romeu and Kyle Walker-Peters will continue to deputise for Hojbjerg and Valery respectively. Nathan Redmond, Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo also provide cover for Boufal and Tella.

Manchester City looks set to be without just one first-team player as they make the trip to St Mary’s.

Striker Sergio Aguero picked up a knee injury recently and will miss the rest of the Premier League and FA Cup run-ins for Pep Guardiola’s side, although there is still hope that he will be back to play in the remaining Champions League games in August.

In a brutal way, this is good news for Saints given that the Argentine has been a constant pest to them in past meetings and weighed in with his share of goals.

However, strength in depth is clearly not an issue for City and they certainly showed this with their 4-0 demolition of Liverpool on Thursday evening.

Having had a week of rest in comparison to City’s three-day break after the last round of fixtures, Saints and Ralph Hasenhuttl will be hoping that this plays into their favour during the game.