Manchester City go top with Haaland strike enough to secure narrow win over Southampton
For a winless Southampton side, journeying north to take on the Manchester City juggernaut was always likely to be a daunting task, and they were given a stark reminder of that within five minutes when Erling Haaland scored his now-customary goal.
That said, it wasn’t one for the ages like his midweek strike against Sparta Prague, as he managed to wrestle off Jan Bednarek and poke home from six yards on the end of Matheus Nunes’ delivery.
Soon after providing the opener, Nunes nearly turned goalscorer, coming within inches of marking his first league start in the best possible way when he fizzed a shot wide from inside the area.
To give Southampton their due, they could very easily have crumbled after falling behind so soon, but to their credit, they defended resolutely for the remainder of the half.
The second half brought no change in momentum though, and the game was very nearly placed beyond the Saints within minutes of the restart, when Phil Foden whistled an effort inches wide of the target.
A second goal seemed imminent, and it should have duly arrived when some Savinho wing play found Haaland at the far post, but he incredibly turned wide from a matter of yards.
That same duo combined again shortly after the hour mark but the outcome was the same, as this time, Haaland’s header from the Brazilian’s cross was neither a shot nor an attempt to tee up a teammate.
It was another miss that kept the seeds of doubt alive, but in truth, City never found themselves sweating, amid a timid attacking display from the Saints who never threatened at all throughout the game.
Ultimately, City were untroubled in seeing out an 11th win from the last 15 top-flight clashes against the Saints.
The picture still looks fairly bleak for Southampton, and though they will know their season won’t be defined today, the longer their winless league run goes on the more the pressure will increase on Russell Martin, who remains one of the frontrunners to be the first managerial casualty of 2024/25.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Matheus Nunes (Manchester City)
