Here we go, the second of this week’s Southampton FC at Manchester City double. The hosts took the first match, an EFL Cup round of 16 clash on Wednesday night, 3-1. It’s obviously a much more respectable scoreline than the 9-0 throttling at the hands of Leicester City in Saints’ last league fixture.
Southampton did the right thing in donating their wages from that day to charity, and maybe that reckoning, and realization, could be a turning point in their season? The south coast club currently resides in the relegation zone, a place they have often found themselves in during the past couple seasons, but in the end they escaped the dreaded drop.
As they look to gets points here on the reigning domestic treble holders, (though the odds are great against them), let’s take a look at the team news for both sides. City has no new fresh injury concerns, but four long term injury absentees in Rodri (hamstring), Oleksandr Zinchenko (knee), Aymeric Laporte (knee) and Leroy Sané (knee).
Switching over to Saints Boufal (knee), and Nathan Redmond (knee) are both doubts while Moussa Djenepo (thigh), Cedric Soares (calf) are out injured. And Ryan Bertrand will miss out as he serves the second of his three game suspension.
Starting XI Predictions
Southampton FC: McCarthy; Bednarik, Yoshida, Vestergaard; Valery, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Armstrong, Ward-Prowse; Ings, Redmond
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Fernandinho, Stones, Mendy; Gundogan, D. Silva, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Sterling; Aguero
Southampton FC at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday Nov 2, 745 BST, City of Manchester Stadium
Odds: Manchester City win 1/9 Draw 12/1 Southampton FC 33/1
Google Result Probability: Manchester City win 90% Draw 7% Southampton FC 3%
Form Guide: Manchester City WWLWW Southampton FC LDLLL
Referee: Lee Mason
Prediction: Manchester City 3, Southampton FC 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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