It was a day of milestones at St. Mary’s on Sunday, with nine-man City coming out as 3-0 victors to move up to second in the table and close the gap on Chelsea. Eliaquim Mangala was sent off, but City pushed on to get the three points and move above the Saints.
Pablo Zabaleta returned to the side after being rested for most of the visit of Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, as did Yaya Touré and Fernandinho who were both suspended for the visit of the Bavarians. Pellegrini elected to stick with Mangala alongside Vincent Kompany for the second game running. José Pozo was once again on the bench for the champions, showing how highly rated he is by Manuel Pellegrini and his backroom staff.
The first half started in a quick, decisive fashion that we haven’t been used to from The Blues so far this season. Victor Wanyama was booked early on, as was Sergio Agüero for a contentious “dive” that looked a stonewall penalty. Refereeing experts and pundits alike have come out to express their shock at the decision, but in the end it didn’t affect the outcome of the game.
The Citizens controlled many of the exchanges for the first quarter of the game, but following a few gut-clenching seconds of pinball in the City box, Southampton worked their way into the game. They started having more possession, but failed to really threaten.
The opening goal came just six minutes into the second half. As City went forward, they worked the ball into the box before Sergio Agüero – making his 100th league appearance in England – played it out for Yaya to try his hand from range. He shot low and hard past Fraser Forster, with a lot of help from a deflection that left Fortster wrong-footed, putting the Blues in front.
On 74 minutes, everything looked like it was set to go a bit “Typical City” when Eliaquim Mangala was sent off for a second bookable offence. While he probably could have won the ball, he couldn’t risk letting Shane Long into the box with just Kompany supporting. Yaya also has to shoulder some of the blame, after his careless play put Mangala under pressure seconds before the foul.
Despite that setback, The Blues doubled their lead on 80 minutes thanks to substitute midfielder Frank Lampard. James Milner, also on as a sub, broke down the left wing, before playing it inside to Lampard to shoot low from range past Fraser Forster. Such a typical Lampard goal, a testament to his quality even at 36 years of age.
Eight minutes later, City put the icing on the already very sizable cake. From a corner, The Blues broke quickly, with the ball ending up at the feet of Agüero. He took it forward, before spotting the breakneck run of Gael Clichy down the right wing. He played it through for the Frenchman, who put it past a defender and the keeper and into the top of the net to make it 3-0. It was Clichy’s first goal in 120 league games for City, and his first goal for over six years as well, and no-one will be more pleased than him.
The only real downsides of the match are the suspension of Eliaquim Mangala for the Sunderland game, and the injury to Vincent Kompany. Manuel Pellegrini says he hopes that it’s just a cramp, but hinted that “Boyata is playing well”, possibly indicating Kompany’s temporary replacement.
This win becomes the first at St Mary’s for City in over 11 years, but could have a lot of significance outside of that. This makes it three wins in a row, scoring eight and conceding just three. As we go into a very busy period of the season, wins like this and the victory on Tuesday night could do wonders for the City confidence. Now we move on to the customary 1-0 loss at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday night.
