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Manchester City‘s aspirations of retaining their Premier League crown suffered a major setback on Saturday evening, when their visit to the St. Mary’s stadium ended in a 3 – 1 defeat to Southampton. It was a thrilling game, at least for the first hour of play, during which City virtually gifted all three goals to the relegation threatened club, and saw Edin Dzeko’s strike act as little consolation for three points unnecessarily chucked out the window. Here are five talking points from the game.
This was the goal which well and truly made the game Southampton’s to lose, and was one which was very unnecessary from the sky blues’ point of view. Southampton had begun the second half on a very threatening note, and Rickie Lambert was causing Zabaleta all sorts of problems on the right flank. Having had many crosses repealed, Lambert continued to play the ball into the box, and perhaps that’s why Gareth Barry decided to be kind and give Lambert a helping hand. With no Southampton player anywhere near him, Barry inexplicably played the ball back towards his own goal, and placed it into the bottom left corner with such accuracy that Joe Hart didn’t even bother attempting to stop it. A bizarre one, but one which Southampton and Manchester United rejoiced almost equally.
Gareth Barry was involved in Southampton’s opener as well, which came in the 7th minute, when Puncheon managed to score after the City defence had managed to stop the first wave of attack. The move began with Barry being dispossessed near the halfway line, allowing Southampton to launch a rapid attack which resulted in Rodriguez seeing his effort bounce back into play after having been blocked. Zabaleta had drifted too far in from right back, and Javi Garcia was also out of position, leaving Puncheon free to collect the ball and manage a cool finish, earning him more than just bragging rights.
Rickie Lambert has been the go-to man for Southampton this season, and on Saturday evening, just like on many occasions before, he produced an excellent performance. For this particular goal, Lambert popped up on the right wing, beating Gael Clichy too easily with a simple cut-in, and unleashed an effort straight at Joe Hart. On most occasions, this would have been the end of the attack, with the ball resting in Hart’s grasp, but this time, it wasn’t meant to be. The ball slipped the English ‘keeper’s hands, allowing the advancing Davis to pounce for his second goal this season against the reigning Champions, and Southampton’s second of the game.
Though only consolatory in nature, City’s goal was wonderfully put together, and a treat to watch for the neutrals. A rapid break, of which any club in the world would be proud, saw Dzeko finish the move which he had started deep in his own half. Credit was also due to Pablo Zabaleta, who made a lung-busting run to join in the attack, and slid in an excellent ball for Dzeko, past the Saints’ defence. The icing on the cake was really the finish from the Bosnian, who adjusted well to meet the ball, managing to get it looping over himself, before bouncing into an empty net, which had been left unguarded by Boruc in an attempt to cut out the ball from Zabaleta. 11 league goals this season then, for the striker who has made most of his appearances off the bench.
The Manchester City who showed up yesterday were termed by quite a few as the “old” City for whom every possible thing that could go wrong, did. The attack lacked any real creativity or spine, in spite of the return of Yaya Toure, and the midfield failed to contain the underrated Southampton play. The biggest problem though, was in defence, were Javi Garcia was considerably inadequate replacement for the missing Vincent Kompany, causing all sorts of problems for not just Mancini, but also his fellow defenders on the pitch. His lack of positional awareness and failure to track runs from the Soton midfield saw City pay the ultimate price, allowing United the chance to pull up to 12 points clear, depending on their result against Everton.
