Up next for Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and his men is an EFL Cup round of 16 clash against hapless Southampton FC on Tuesday night. The Saints are coming off a Friday night thrashing, 9-0 at the hands of Leicester City which served as the largest margin of defeat by a home side in Premier League history.
The only other 9-0 scoreline ever achieved during the PL era came back in 1995 when Manchester United slaughtered Ipswich Town. The Saints have no choice but to try and flush it, and move forward quickly on to this one.
For City, they came out of the gates slowly at home against Aston Villa, before then dominating the second half, en route to a 3-0 win. Guardiola made some eye-popping comments, warning his side that they could be relegated is they play as poorly as they did for the first 45 minutes.
In turning to the team news for this one, the holders will have midfielder and emergency centre back Fernandinho, at least according to their website, despite the Brazilian being sent off in the closing stages of the victory over the Villans.
City are currently having plenty of issues with injury and depth in the central spine of the team. Rodri, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leroy Sane and Aymeric Laporte remain long term injury absentees.
For Saints, they are also dealing with a suspension, as Ryan Bertrand got a red card sending off during the historically bad showing against Leicester. Southampton FC will also be without their pair of long term injury absentees, Moussa Djenepo (leg) and Cédric Soares (calf).
Southampton FC at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Tues Oct 29, 745 BST, City of Manchester Stadium
Starting XI Predictions for both sides: go to this link
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Prediction: Manchester City 5, 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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