Manchester City visit Southampton at St Mary's Stadium on Saturday, looking for the three points that would keep them inside the Premier League top four. The reverse fixture ended 1-1 in October, and last season the Saints won 4-2 at St Mary's after a 3-1 defeat at the Etihad Stadium. Overall, Manchester City have won four of the last six direct meetings, but they have not won at St Mary's since 2014.
Southampton have won their last two Premier League matches, but they can't hope to qualify for the Europa League as seventh-placed Everton are 14 points ahead of them. It's true that the Saits have two games in hand on the Toffess, but the gap would be quite significant even if they win both those matches. Oriol Romeu is suspended for this match, while Matt Targett, Charlie Austin, Alex McCarthy and Virgil van Dijk are all injured. Manolo Gabbiadini and Sofiane Boufal could also miss out, but their fitness will be assessed again before the match.
Manchester City are still in a tough battle for a top-four finish, they are currently fourth but both Manchester United and Arsenal, placed fifth and sixth, have a game in hand on the Citizens. Pep Guardiola's men beat Hull City 3-1 last weekend to recover from the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in the previous match, but that was their first victory in a competitive match in almost a month. Ilkay Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus and Bacary Sagna remain the only names on the injured list for Manchester City.
Probable line-ups:
Southampton: Forster - Soares, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand - Clasie, Hojbjerg - Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Redmond - Long
Man City: Bravo - Navas, Stones, Kompany, Clichy - Fernandinho - Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva, Sane - Aguero
My prediction: Manchester City to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Southampton win - 4.33
Draw - 4.00
Man City win - 1.73
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