Ronald Koeman: Slow Start Cost Southampton Against Manchester City

While De Bruyne has made an instant impact with his impressive tally of goals and assists, Silva has spent the last two months on the sidelines with an ankle problem.

In the 20th minute, De Bruyne’s corner picked out Fabian Delph, who hit a deflected shot past Maarten Stekelenburg for City’s second goal. “We have to forget this game and try to bounce back in the league”.

“We didn’t play that much together, and that’s been really hard for both of us, but he’s such a great player that it’s easy to play together with him”, said the Belgium global. “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”.

“We will see [if it will keep him out of the next game]”.

Following a 4-1 home thumping by Liverpool and a 1-0 Champions League defeat at Juventus and, as conjecture grows about his future with Pep Guardiola’s name linked with the City job this week, Pellegrini needed a tonic.

“I was very pleased with the team’s reaction”.

The Sky Blues have failed to win their last three games since beating Sevilla 3-1 away to book their place in the last 16.

“But we don’t have other injuries and the team is fit, the team is doing good training sessions and that’s always important to have a good feeling for the Saturday game”.

After a tough week for Manchester City, the Sky Blues are back in action against Southampton. “Maybe when they scored we were a bit nervous until our third goal, but I’m happy about the performance and the result”.

Pellegrini said beating Juventus on their own turf would also be a gauge of his side’s Champions League-winning potential, but it quickly became clear their current injury woes would play to Juve’s advantage.

Manchester City could have earned a penalty after Steven Davis turned Fernandinho’s header behind the line, but the referee saw nothing in it. It did not harm the hosts as they looked comfortable and clinical all evening.

In quotes on the club’s website, Koeman said: “I think the start of the game was very poor, we had a lot of mistakes in our ball possession”. I’m confident we can go there and do that. They’re full of quality but it’s a game for us to relish.