Manchester City go top of the league after beating Southampton

There were two instances in this game in which handballs that should have resulted in penalties went unnoticed by referee Roger East. The first raised questions over the possibility that it was deliberate when Steven Davis seemed to block a goal-bound Fernandinho header with his arm. “I hope both of them can recover”.

Despite those heroics, Bournemouth have now gone eight games without a win and remain in the relegation zone on 10 points with Newcastle and Aston Villa, who have only five points and have lost 11 of their 14 games, beneath them. He said: “Maybe one defeat in this club is a crisis for this club, in the media”. We play nearly at the same position but we are very different players. “We will see tomorrow [Sunday]”. This has been a great Champions League match with some very good play.

“At least we showed in the second half that we can keep the ball and have good ball possession, but if you make those kind of mistakes, you know City can punish you”.

The pair have played just three games together this season to the frustration of fans and boss Manuel Pellegrini.

Sergio Aguero is an 11/4 first scorer bet and Sadio Mane trades 3/1 with bet365 to net anytime for Southampton. This weekend though the 28-year-old should have his chance to stake a claim for a central role moving forward.

“You just need to go on and to win the next game”.

On De Bruyne, he added: ‘He scored a lot of goals in Germany so we brought him here because he is a mix of a creative player and also a goalscorer’.

The biggest cheer of the night came in the 74th minute, as David Silva made a return to action, replacing Sterling.

The Dutchman said: “It is not a question about tactics, about players or about the line-up if we make the kind of mistakes we did in the first 20 minutes”.

“I spoke with Aguero before the game and we said he would play 65 minutes”. Southampton have only managed seven goals in six games on the road – and I think City will find a way of winning this one. “So hopefully we can see the same again now”.

Juventus advanced to the knockout stages of the Champions League and moved above Manchester City into the top spot in Group D, with a 1-0 win over the Premier League side on Wednesday in Turin, Italy.

City made a fast start following defeats against Liverpool and Juventus and took an early 2-0 lead through De Bruyne and the energetic Fabian Delph.