Southampton v Manchester City: Premier League – live!

82 mins: Another City shot, another block. This one squirms away for a corner.

79 mins: Everyone but Long is back for Southampton as City lay siege to their penalty area again, and the home side eventually clear.

75 mins: Save! And this time it’s Ederson! Long’s pass to Ings clips the back of his heel but ricochets to Armstrong, whose first-time shot comes off Ederson’s trailing leg. That wasn’t far away.

74 mins: De Bruyne swivels in the area and volleys high. Really he did pretty well to hit that as cleanly asa he did, and it would have been a phenomenal goal, “Southampton are playing like they are in front of a full house,” writes Stephen Carr. “They’ve come a long way since the 9-0 against Leicester.” Their commitment tonight is extremely impressive.

67 mins: Garcia horribly underhits a backpass, and Adams looks certain to run onto it only for Ederson to scream off his line to get there first!

66 mins: Save! An easy one, this time. Zinchenko crosses, Jesus doesn’t connect properly with his header, and McCarthy gathers.

65 mins: Close! De Bruyne’s cross deflects to Bernardo Silva, whose left-footed shot clips a defender and goes wide!

64 mins: Action resumes, with City still rapping at Southampton’s still-locked door.

63 mins: A pause, while Bertrand receives treatment to something-or-other. He’ll be fine.

60 mins: This could get expensive (thanks to my colleague Jason Rodrigues for the tip):

59 mins: City bring on De Bruyne and Foden, and take off Sterling and Mahrez.

57 mins: Fernandinho clatters into Redmond, and gets booked for doing so.

56 mins: Another Jesus shot, another defensive block. There is just no space for City to exploit.

55 mins: City’s goal is living what they call a charmed life. Cancelo crosses from the left, Jesus volleys goalwards, and the ball hits a defender.

54 mins: Another save! City’s finest move and chance of the game ends with Zinchenko finding David Silva, who turns beautifully and runs on goal, but when he needed to lift it over McCarthy he instead went low, and hit the keeper.

50 mins: Save! The ball just won’t drop for City! Fernandinho crosses from the right to Laporte, whose shot deflects into the air, and then Jesus’s header is saved by McCarthy. The home side are teetering here.

48 mins: Close! City win a corner, which Mahrez curls into the box. It’s flicked on at the near post, but just beyond Laporte at the far!

46 mins: Peeeeep! Southampton get the second half started. Both teams are unchanged, though apparently Foden and Rodri spent the entire interval warming up, which may indicate imminent substitutions are planned, but then again might not.

The players are back out and ready for more. And so indeed are we.

“As someone “watching” through the MBM (no visuals) I find myself wondering if “catching David Silva on the halfway line” (45 mins) refers to the location of the foul on the pitch, or is actually a euphemism for something else. Please elaborate,” writes, um, sjr8545. I can confirm that I was referring to the location of the foul on the pitch rather than on David Silva.

45+4 mins: And that’s all for now! This is a very decent match, and Southampton are excellently organised and motivated and generally a credit to themselves and all who know and love them.

45+3 mins: The ball drops to Romeu in midfield, and he blooters it downfield. He is having an entertainingly agricultural few minutes.

45+2 mins: City have the ball. Southampton have everybody behind it. It’s worked right, across to the left, back across to the right and finally crossed into the box, where it drops to Romeu who blooters it clear.

45+1 mins: There will be at least three bonus first-half minutes of additional action.

45 mins: Romeu wins the first booking of the match for catching David Silva on the halfway line.

44 mins: Chance for Southampton! Walker-Peters lifts the ball into the box, where Laporte has lost him entirely, but he stretches for a volley and lifts it over the bar!

42 mins: David Silva has a bit of time and a bit of space in midfield. He waits, he watches, and then he spears a pass to nobody whatsoever, which runs to McCarthy.

39 mins: David Silva and Walker-Peters go for another high ball and head each other, both players requiring treatment before recovering.

37 mins: Save! More good work from Cancelo, who feints his way past a couple of defenders and then feeds Mahrez, who cuts onto his left foot and curls a low shot towards the far post only for McCarthy to save with a foot!

35 mins: Redmond has another shot, this time from the left-hand corner of the area. This time it’s much lower, but straight at Ederson.

33 mins: Southampton steal the ball off City and earn a shooting chance once again. This time it’s Redmond doing the stealing and the shooting, and Cancelo being caught out, but the shot is high and horrid.

32 mins: Bernardo Silva fluffs a simple pass! The ball breaks to him, 30 yards from goal, and Jesus is open in front of him, but his pass is overhit and McCarthy gathers.

30 mins: Fernandinho hits the post! Then a point-blank McCarthy save from David Silva’s header, after the Spaniard comprehensively outjumps Walker-Peters!

30 mins: Save! City are pushing now, and Sterling smashes a shot that McCarthy pushes away.

27 mins: Chance! Cancelo’s excellent chipped pass reaches Sterling, who volleys across the six-yard box from the right. A goal looks inevitable, but Jesus can’t quite reach it, and Ings clobbers clear.

25 mins: The players take a drink, and TV viewers soak up a few more replays of the goal. It really was delicious.

23 mins: Cancelo slams in a cross/shot from the right, which reaches Jesus just beyond the far post, who has an open goal and a decent angle but almost no reaction time, and scoops over the bar.

21 mins: Bernardo Silva gets into the box, squares up Bednarek and then goes down as Romeu comes across to help. He looks upset not to get a penalty, Southampton seem annoyed he even appealed, and VAR takes about three seconds to dismiss it.

20 mins: City’s pride has been punctured, and they create good crossing opportunities from right and left, but on both occasions the lovely play to create the chance is not followed by good delivery.

17 mins: Zinchenko tries to jink pass Armstrong and fails, the ball bouncing away to Adams. From about 50 yards he hits a first-time, curling shot over Ederson and into the net. What a finish! That is an absolute beauty.

Che Adams breaks his Southampton duck – and how!

14 mins: Ings has a chance to play Armstrong in, but it’s a difficult opportunity, and he mishits his pass pretty emphatically. Ederson collects.

11 mins: Walker-Peters shadows Sterling’s run towards the ball and then just keeps going when Sterling stops, steamrollering him.

9 mins: The game is being played at quite a low tempo, at least when City have it. Southampton, it’s fair to say, are a little more rushed when they get the ball.

6 mins: The first chance of the game, such as it is, falls to Southampton! Laporte helps, attempting a left-footed volleyed clearance and missing the ball entirely, allowing it to run through to Adams. He mishits his shot but it goes straight to Redmond at the far post, who is surprised to see it come to him, and can’t quite react in time to shoot, takes a poor touch, is forced to turn his back to goal, and City recover.

David Silva wins the coin toss, and decides his team should have the ball. Which is typical.

Ralph Hasenhuttl talks about Southampton’s remaining ambitions:

Taking as much points as possible until the end of the season. We have some interesting fixtures, today’s the first one. It’s always a great pleasure to play against maybe the best team in the world, they have incredible players, and it’s always a pleasure to have one week to prepare for the game.

What he’s asked, does his team have to do to win this game:

More running, more sprinting, more fighting, more speaking on the pitch, brave on the ball, good decision-making, and when you have a chance, then be clinical, and then in some moments have the luck to don’t concede a goal. So you need to have a very good day, so let’s go for it.

Pep Guardiola has a quick chat for the TV folks, initially about his six changes:

We play every three days, a lot of games, and all the players deserve to play for the way they behave and their training and they play. I’m really impressed [with Southampton], after the moment the suffered losing 9-0 against Leicester they made an incredible run of results and they’re out of the dangerous positions and thinking of the top, top positions.

Southampton have had a full week to recover from their 3-1 win at Watford so their need to rest players is less pressing. Still they bring in Jack Stephens, Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams and leave out Shane Long, Jannik Vestergaard and Will Smallbone

Manchester City make fully six changes to the team that tonked Liverpool in midweek, bringing in David and Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Joao Cancelo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Riyad Mahrez. Edertson, Laporte, Garcia, Gabriel Jesus and Sterling keep their places.

These are the all-important names whose more-important bearers will be playing in tonight’s vaguely-important match:

Southampton: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Redmond, Ings, Adams. Subs: Long, Djenepo, Obafemi, Smallbone, Gunn, Vokins, Danso, Jankewitz, Ferry.
Man City: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Eric Garcia, Laporte, Zinchenko, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Silva, Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling. Subs: Bravo, Stones, Gundogan, Rodri, De Bruyne, Otamendi, Foden, Doyle, Harwood-Bellis.
Referee: Andre Marriner.

Hello world!

Southampton have drawn just one league game since November and four all season, more only than two teams, one of which they face this evening (Liverpool and Manchester City have drawn three each, though there’s a chance that the newly-crowned champions will have drawn a fourth before this game kicks off).

Southampton’s home record is the worst in the entire division (they have nearly twice as many away points as home, with the same number of games played, and are only two points behind City in the away table) with just 14 points to their name at St Mary’s this season and 10 of 16 games lost. Never in their entire history have they lost 11 home league games in a season, and with only Brighton and Sheffield United to come should they avoid defeat in this game they will be confident of avoiding that unwanted piece of history. But City have won their last six league meetings with the Saints, by an average score of 2.83-0.67. One thing’s

for sure
slightly more likely than usual: it won’t be a draw.