The reality is that we are struggling...
Pep relief after Sterling winner but he’s not going to be fooled and has to admit ...
THIS was undeniably better from Manchester City. Indeed, at times, they even looked like Manchester City.
It had been a while since Pep Guardiola’s team had actually beaten a decent Premier League side. Wolves on the first day of the season was probably the last occasion, given that Arsenal don’t really count any more.
And here there were undoubted signs of encouragement. The continued renaissance of John Stones and the flashes of the old Raheem Sterling. Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne’s combinations made you think of better days, when they were cutting a swathe through teams back in 2018.
Yet this still remains a team so far from its peak that it’s hard not to lament their relative decline whenever you watch them. They have now scored 19 goals after 13 games, just over half the amount Liverpool have managed.
‘The reality is our momentum up front is not good,’ conceded Guardiola. ‘That’s why we are struggling. We create these situations to score. Maybe one day we work, the players come back in their form and we can do it.’
Asked to consider Liverpool’s seven- goal victory, Guardiola shrugged. ‘Look at the table,’ he said, the gap now eight points from their rival, though with a game in hand. ‘They still have their momentum with goals.’
Bit by bit, he suggested, they would haul themselves back.
For this still feels like this is City Lite. Maybe with a fit Sergio Aguero it would be different. But can a 32-year-old with a reluctant knee be relied upon? A new topclass centre forward might make the difference, but those aren’t available in January. What price a move for Erling Braut Haaland this summer?
Guardiola lauded his defence and it is true that Stones was good, with two crucial interventions, twice taking the ball off Che Adams’ head as he was poised to head home.
And yet they conceded so many chances and invited their opponents on to them so often, that it isn’t just the likes of Liverpool who will take comfort. Bor us si a Monchengladbach will doubtless look on and be encouraged as well, with an eye on next year’s Champions League tie.
City just don’t press the ball like they once did and Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan don’t provide stability and dominance. Time and again, Oriol Romeu and James WardProwse were able to pass through them. Another day, with a full 90 minutes from Danny Ings, maybe Southampton would have exposed them not just tactically but in the scoreline as well. Having just recovered from a knee injury, Ings left the pitch with a hamstring strain on 40 minutes.
Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl could not help but be encouraged with what was an excellent display, if ultimately pointless. ‘We played better than last summer [when they beat City 1-0 here] but this time they scored,’ he said. ‘I saw an unbelievable performance from my team today and we underlined why we are top four before today.’
There was a time when Guardiola was dismissive of English football’s obsession with winning second balls from knock-downs. But needs must. Amid the most sterile period of his coaching career, he’s willing to mix and match and sometimes the direct route is the best of all.
So it was on 16 minutes, when Ederson hit a long ball down the right channel. Southampton headed clear but De Bruyne was first to that second ball, picking up the scraps and exchanging a swift pass with Bernardo Silva to cross for Sterling who, though in the box, had some work to do in a crowded area to execute a clean finish and make it 1-0.
It was the kind of slick, incisive City that we once knew so well. But Southampton were undeterred. They particularly enjoyed a switchball across the pitch to release Theo Walcott on the right wing, with his opposite number, Joao Cancelo, seen as a weak link.
Walcott neatly touched Moussa Djenepo’s pass into the path of Ings on 26 minutes. The centre forward stooped and headed wide but as he did so, Ruben Dias kicked out in desperation, dangerously close to Ings’ head. Referee Mike Dean let it go and declined Ings’ suggestion to check the monitor for a penalty.
And Walcott again cut City open on 33 minutes, his cross just missing the run of Adams, allowing Stones to clear.
The first good chance of the second half fell to City — Bernardo Silva rounding Alex McCarthy on 53 minutes but over-running the ball and thus shooting directly y into
the keeper — yet it was Southampton who continued to impress.
They could have had a penalty on 59 minutes, when a corner cleared was controlled by Sterling’s upper arm. It might have been given at the start of season, under the stricter new handball rule.
Walcott, ably supported by Kyle Walker-Peters, carved a fresh way through City and pulled the ball back for Nathan Redmond, who completely missed his shot. And Southampton almost let City in on 70 minutes when Ryan Bertrand switched off, was robbed of the ball, allowing Bernardo Silva to play in De Bruyne, whose shot was well saved by McCarthy.
On 72 minutes, Walker- Peters crossed and were it not for the desperate intervention of Stones, sliding in to deflect, Adams might have had an easy chance to head home.
McCarthy was required to dive to his right and stop Gundogan’s 25-yarder. And at the death, teed up by Silva, Mahrez drove over.
Despite never being wholly comfortable, City took the points. For now, that is comfort enough.