Southampton’s impressive start to the season has come to an abrupt halt, with three successive defeats dropping the south coast club to eighth place.
That has raised fears Saints are beginning to feel the strain although the results don’t tell the whole story with Southampton performing well despite losing at Arsenal and Chelsea before Wednesday’s home defeat by Aston Villa.
Statistically, Southampton overwhelmed Paul Lambert’s side, enjoying 77 percent possession, completing six times as many passes as their opponents and conjuring 21 shots while the visitors scored from their three efforts on target.
That has helped prevent Mauricio Pochettino’s team becoming too disheartened at suffering another loss.
“It’s not that we’re not playing well. We are playing well,” said Saints captain Adam Lallana.
“We’ve got to prepare and get everyone as fit as we can. It is a big month. We’ve proved we can beat Man City. We did last season, so let’s do it again.”
Victor Wanyama is struggling to recover from a knock suffered against Villa while fellow midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin is expected to miss out with a groin problem.
Southampton take on Man City at home and will be looking to cause an upset against the Citizens once again.
Written by Martins
@MartinsChokoe
