Haaland, Foden and McAtee all start as City make five changes | OneFootball

Erling Haaland and Phil Foden are among five players returning to the starting XI as City take on Southampton this afternoon.

Rico Lewis, Manu Akanji and James McAtee are also recalled, with Jeremy Doku, Matheus Nunes, Nico O’Reilly, Ilkay Gundogan and Omar Marmoush all dropping down to the bench.

Top scorer Haaland plays for the first time in six weeks.

The Norwegian striker has 30 goals this season and will be looking to end the campaign on a high.

Line-ups

CITY XI: Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Kovacic, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, McAtee, Foden, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Marmoush, Grealish, Doku, Nico, Gundogan, Savinho, Nunes, O'Reilly

SAINTS XI:  Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens; Bree, Downes, Ugochukwu, Welington; Fernandes, Sulemana; Dibling

Subs: McCarthy, Archer,  Aribo, Manning, Onuachu, Smallbone, Stewart, Sugawara, Wood-Gordon

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Likely Formation & Tactics

We will have to wait until kick-off to learn our defensive shape.

Akanji could partner Ruben Dias with Lewis and Josko Gvardiol as full-backs.

Equally, the Swiss could fill in at right-back with the versatile Lewis on the left, if Pep Guardiola elects to keep the Dias and Gvardiol centra pairing in place.

Mateo Kovacic will pin the midfield trio that is likely to include skipper Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo, with Foden and McAtee on the flanks and Haaland in the middle.

WATCH: Saints v City: Memorable Moments

Full-on Focus

Southampton may be propping up the Premier League and already been relegated, but Pep Guardiola knows his players will be up against a side with no pressure on them whatsoever.

With a full St Mary’s Stadium and the sun shining, the City boss would chide anybody who believes the Blues just have to turn up to collect three points.

The old cliché that there are no easy games in this division is true, and Saints have shown on a number of occasions that they have some quality players.

The only real thing that City will focus on is returning home with a victory – there is still a lot of hard work to be done in our quest for Champions League football.

Stats and facts

Southampton have won just one of their last 15 Premier League games against Man City (D3 L11), a 1-0 home win in July 2020.

City won the reverse fixture 1-0 against Southampton but haven’t kept a clean sheet in consecutive league meetings with the Saints since doing so in both meetings of the 2014-15 campaign.

Since the 2004-05 season, City have lost just three of their 25 Premier League meetings with Southampton (W17 D5), though all three of those defeats have come at St. Mary’s.

City are unbeaten in their last 29 Premier League games against sides starting the day bottom of the table (W24 D5) since a 2-1 loss at West Brom in December 2008. The Citizens have won their last 12 in a row by an aggregate score of 44-1.

Southampton have lost 28 Premier League games this season, while defeat here would equal the highest number of losses in a 20-team top-flight campaign (also Sunderland in 2005-06, Derby in 2007-08 and Sheffield United in 2020-21).

City have won their last four Premier League games, their joint-longest winning run of the season. They’re looking to win back-to-back away league games for the first time since August.

Southampton have dropped more points from winning positions than any other team in the Premier League this season (28). If they lead but fail to win this match, it will be the first time they’ve lost 30+ points after going ahead in a single campaign in the competition.

Southampton have conceded 82 Premier League goals this season. Only three times before have they conceded more in a single league campaign in their history – 85 in 1952-53, 92 in 1966-67 and 83 in 1967-68.

Against no side has City’s Kevin De Bruyne been directly involved in more Premier League goals than he has against Southampton (14 – 4 goals, 10 assists). Only Ryan Giggs (12 vs City and 12 vs Newcastle) and Cesc Fàbregas (11 vs Tottenham) have more assists against an opponent in the competition than his 10 vs Saints.

City’s Jérémy Doku has completed more dribbles than any other player in the Premier League this season (102), while he also has the highest dribble success rate of anyone to attempt at least 60 (61.5%).