Aguero injury mars City win

It’s not easy playing so many games with the same players but I think the start was really important.

Manchester City recovered well from last week’s stumble against Liverpool to get their title campaign back on track, overcoming a Southampton side without Graziano Pellè.

Quickly after the halftime break, Saints’ forward Shane Long headed in a cross past City goalkeeper Wilfred Caballero that cut the City lead to 2-1 after 49 minutes.

“Talking about the Premier League we just won one point from six so it was very important to win against an unbeaten team away”.

The downside for City was the loss of Sergio Aguero in the second half through injury but manager Manuel Pellegrini later played down the issue, describing it as a mere “kick in the heel” that he did not think was serious.

Time and again the visitors surrendered the ball in risky areas, and Maarten Stekelenburg had already denied Raheem Sterling and Kolarov by the time Sterling picked Maya Yoshida’s gaping pocket and squared to give De Bruyne a tap-in.

Southampton failed to respond to their opponents’ opener and conceded a second goal on 20 minutes through Fabian Delph, who found the net from the edge of the penalty area via a Virgil van Dijk deflection.

“It was a very important reaction”, the manager said.

Juventus, who deployed a 3-5-2 amid injury concerns of their own, survived an early scare when Fernandinho fired just wide of Gianluigi Buffon’s post after Kevin De Bruyne fire a cross into the area from the right. “We will see. It was important for David to play these minutes”, Pellegrini added.

Sergio Agüero, who has missed over 230 days of Premier League football since his arrival in England three summers ago, is undoubtedly Manchester City’s best player.

Southampton will return to action on Wednesday evening when they take on Liverpool at St. Mary’s Stadium in the quarter-finals of the League Cup. We were a little nervous until the third goal, but I’m happy with the performance and the result.

“Maybe we were lucky to be only 2-0 after 20 minutes because we lost every ball”.

The Italian striker drew harsh criticism from boss Ronald Koeman after arguing his way into the referee’s notebook in last week’s match against Stoke City. “We were not through before tonight as Sevilla still had a chance, so we were at risk – City are one of the best teams in Europe”.