EPL – What We Learned – Manchester City 3 Southampton 1

So if it is still a good result for us at that moment it could be tougher for them in the last 20 minutes.

“I think we learned after this defeat and we started again”.

Ronald Koeman accused his Southampton side of beating themselves as they went down 3-1 at Manchester City.

The 20th minute saw Fernandinho’s header turned deliberately round the post by the elbow of Steven Davis, but the referee thought it hit his body rather than his arm, awarding a corner rather than a penalty and a red card.

Manchester City have been inexplicably erratic through the season so far, and their defeat to Juventus in the Champions League in midweek extended their winless run to three games.

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

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said he expects Philippe Countinho to play against Southampton despite missing the 1-0 win over Swansea on Sunday. I was happy with the performance.

“Everybody has his own style, and I think we play nearly at the same position, but we’re very different players, so it’s better to have different players who play together than to have all the same. We will see tomorrow [Sunday]”. “We’ve won just one point of our last six so it was important to beat a hard team who were unbeaten away”.

The Saints have let in just four goals on the road this season, the joint-best record in the Premier League; the back four will have to play out of their skins if that record is to remain by Saturday evening.

It remains to be seen whether the Manchester City boss decides to risk Aguero for their League Cup quarter-final against Hull City this Tuesday night.

Saints improved in the second half and soon halved the deficit. They face a wait to find out if first-choice goalkeeper Hart will recover in time to play, while defenders Zabaleta and Mangala both face late fitness tests.

City were dominant for much of the first half and came close to taking an early lead when Yaya Toure played in Raheem Sterling for a volley, only for Southampton keeper, Maarten Stekelenburg, to deny the former Liverpool man. “It’s not nice to lose a game but when you lose it playing well it is a little bit easier to take”.

“Kolarov’s goal to make it 3-1 killed us off but we can take a lot of positives”.

City were out-possessed by Southampton 54%-46%, however they created 16 chances, in which nine shots reached Stekelenburg in-goal.