Man City back to winning ways

Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring for City after just nine minutes with a close range finish, before Fabian Delph doubled the hosts lead with a deflected effort from outside the Southampton box. It’s important for us to reach the semi-final of the League Cup.

But he said he still prefers to pick the Ivorian in a deeper role, explaining: “Maybe so many times Yaya plays a little behind with two midfielders and I always say that’s his best position”.

Of El Mago’s return, De Bruyne said: “Obviously it’s good for us”. It is not easy because they are playing so many games with the same players.

You have to fancy Manchester City to get back to winning ways in this one but it may well be tight.

Now he can not wait to team up with Silva for a sustained period – they have only been on the pitch together for 159 minutes.

The Serbian full-back was left unmarked at the far post by the Saints defence and had time to control De Bruyne cross before guiding a left-foot shot beyond Stekelenburg and into the far corner.

“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”.

Aguero is expected to return to the starting 11, but even if he plays from the first minute, it is unlikely for him to play the entire match.

Fabian Delph scored City’s second on his first start for the club, his goal coming seconds after Steven Davis had escaped punishment for a goal-line handball.

A concern for the home side was the sight of Sergio Agüero limping off after an hour. Having only just returned to the lineup last match after missing four games due to a hamstring injury, the 27-year-old has had patches of injury problems over the past two seasons.

Southampton were often their own enemy throughout the game, failing to deal with City’s forward pressure and giving away possession. That system certainly makes the side more secure at the back, and they will need that here up against a front three of Sadio Mane, Shane Long and Dusan Tadic, who on their day are very much capable of punishing errors of the sort from which Liverpool profited. They made mistake after mistake as the Reds ran riot, which was highly uncharacteristic of a side that had gone into the match leading the Premier League standings.

The visit to Stoke on Saturday will be the latest example of that in this league of weekly trials.