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The shock of the Premier League game-week came at the St. Mary's Stadium on Sunday evening as Manchester City lost their ninth league game of the season, away at Southampton. A first half goal from Che Adams was enough to win all three points for Ralph Hasenhuttl's side, who entered the match with the worst home record in the division.
The result leaves Manchester City a whopping 23 points behind champions Liverpool who they decimated barely three days ago that adds to the strangeness of this result.
Southampton, on the other hand, have all but secured another season in the Premier League and now have 43 points to sit comfortably in 13th spot in the Premier League table.
Here are five talking points from Manchester City's 0-1 loss to Southampton in the Premier League.
Five talking points from Manchester City's 0-1 loss to Southampton in the Premier League
#1: Adams finally ends his scoring drought
When Southampton shelled out a handsome €17 million to acquire the services of Che Adams from Birmingham, much was expected of the English speedster.
After all, he had scored 22 goals in the Championship just the season before. However, nothing went to plan for the 23-year-old this season, who just couldn't seem to even buy a goal. He went 35 games without scoring across all competitions, and even more shockingly, was yet to register a shot on target at home all season.
Considering the same, he couldn't have chosen a better way and occasion of scoring his very first goal. Adams collected the ball from Start Armstrong who did well to rob Oleksandr Zinchenko.
He was still a long way from the Manchester City goal, but with audacity you don't usually associate with a player on such a long goal-drought, Adams lobbed the ball gracefully over the head of Ederson, who was well off his line. The entire Southampton squad went into delirium and cheered their teammate on, who was clearly more relieved than ecstatic. What a goal!
#2: Wholesale changes hurt Pep Guardiola's Manchester City
Pep Guardiola decided to leave a majority of the players from the team that crushed Premier League champions Liverpool 4-0 a few nights ago, making as many as six first-team changes. If there is any squad in the league that can manage to make so any changes and still field a strong side, it is Manchester City.
Unfortunately for the Cityzens, the quality of their depth wasn't on display this time around. Zinchenko, who replaced Ferland Mendy at the left-back spot, was the culprit behind conceding the goal that proved to be the winner later in the day.
Bernardo Silva, too, had one of his weaker games, as did Joao Cancelo who wasn't as dominant in attack as he usually is. Riyad Mahrez too, had a below par game by his standards. Fernandinho, who was playing his first match of the season in his regular defensive midfield role, was rusty, after coming off of a suspension.
The only new Manchester City face who looked sharp was David Silva. However, one out of six hardly makes for impressive reading and Manchester City will be disappointed that their squad depth couldn't bail them out this time.
#3: Wasteful Manchester City left to rue missed chances again
Manchester City can carve out a chance like none other. However, one can't safely say that they can convert those goal-scoring chances just as well. They have been guilty of missing a large number of big chances this season, and this match was no different in that respect.
Manchester City thoroughly dominated against Southampton and rained shots at Alex McCarthy's net. Although the goalkeeper himself had a blinder, Manchester City will only have themselves to blame for not getting at least a point from this fixture.
They had as many as 26 shots on goal, managing to have six of them on target. Manchester City also had around three quarters of the possession, dictating the game for much of the ninety minutes.
City had some guilt-edged chances to equalise, especially in the first half, but just couldn't find a way past Alex McCarthy. Their profligacy is a big cause for concern, as it is often the difference between winning and losing in Cup ties.
#4: Southampton put on a defensive masterclass
Southampton have conceded 55 goals this season, the fourth worst defensive record in the 2019-20 Premier League. Naturally, when they came up against the best attacking team in the league, not much was expected of their defence to begin with. However, we were all in for a surprise. Southampton put on a defensive show as good as any other they have this season.
The Saints lined up with a back-four of Ryan Bertrand, Jack Stephens, Jan Bednarek and Tottenham loanee Kyle Walker-Peters. Although that back-line doesn't exude a lot of confidence on paper, they were all in the mood of being a part of something special against Manchester City. They put their bodies on the line heroically on a number of instances.
Jack Stephens in particular, made as many as four blocks to keep Manchester City at bay. The Southampton full-backs, Walker-Peters and Bertrand, who are more renowned for their offence, were focused defensively throughout the game, and didn't allow the City wingers to pull off their usual tricks.
On the odd occasion when their backline was beaten, up stepped Alex McCarthy who had his best game of the season.
#5: Manchester City on the verge of losing their record
When Manchester City cantered their way to their first Premier League title under Pep Guardiola in 2017-18, they made sure they broke a few records in the process.
One of them was a rather impressive one of winning the title with the biggest margin (in terms of points). City finished 19 points above their neighbours Manchester United that season.
As things stand in this campaign, City are 23 points behind champions Liverpool, who have five games to see out in order to break that record.
Manchester City were huge favourites to reduce their gap to Liverpool to 20 points with what should have been a routine victory at Southampton. But their failure to do so sees them at the prospect of losing one of their proud records.
Nothing is certain yet, but there is a strong chance of it happening now.
