De Bruyne Shines In City Victory

But it was their misfortune to encounter a City team that was lying in wait in a torrential downpour in east Manchester.

“Jay had the surgery last Tuesday and we are happy about that, because that was the best to do”.

City’s shock 4-1 defeat at home to Liverpool last Saturday saw them surrender the lead in the title race, with manager Manuel Pellegrini admitting the performance had been the worst he had seen since his arrival at Eastlands two-and-a-half years ago. “Our style will be the same, that we try to play football, to build up from the back, but of course in direct play it needs to be changed a little bit”. They’re full of quality but it’s a game for us to relish.

Meanwhile, Southampton have had to endure a hard start to the campaign and have been pretty underwhelming at times, compared to what they managed last season under Ronald Koeman.

But victory came at the cost of an injury to Sergio Aguero, who hobbled off in the second half, and both Leicester City and Manchester United will have designs on supplanting City when they meet later on Saturday.

All five of Southampton’s league wins have come against clubs in the bottom seven of the league table. “We had quite a lot of injuries from important players but we have to live with that”, Toure said.

Southampton’s defeat was their first away from home in the Premier League this season but, aside from the hard opening, their display was a positive one. “But I think one of the reasons is they have some big injuries in key players and even for a team like City it is hard for them to handle that with all the number of games that they have to play”.

Sterling, whose final ball can often be wayward, timed his pass to De Bruyne perfectly, with the Belgian stroking home from six yards after Ryan Bertrand had failed to cut out the cross.

Long told the club’s website: “After 20 minutes they were 2-0 up and it would have been very easy to roll over and let them get three or four”.

“It should be an entertaining game but we’ll need to be at our best to get something”.

Palace, who had slipped back to 10th after a good start to the season, responded with two goals from Yannick Bolasie, two from James McArthur and one from Wilfried Zaha to send Newcastle back into the relegation zone.

But City finally killed off any hopes of a comeback and eased the growing frustration among their supporters thanks to a goal from Kolarov in the 69th minute.