Manchester City vs. Southampton – EPL, March 10, 2021

These two come into this game on Monday in unfamiliar positions. Manchester City has just lost its first league game since November – and Southampton has just won its first in ten attempts.

City should still go on to win the league title this season. But the Saints need to pick up a few more points to be completely sure of their top-flight status for another year. 

Defeat in the Manchester derby at the weekend will surely just be a minor blip on the way to another league title for Pep Guardiola and his players. So BetOnline making the home side overwhelming favorites for Monday’s fixtures is not a surprise. Southampton might have beaten Sheffield United, but beating City at the Etihad is another thing altogether.

Pep Guardiola seemed fairly relaxed in shrugging off the defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, but he won’t have been too happy with the way his team started the game – and virtually handed United its first goal in the way of a penalty with just a few minutes on the clock.

City looked strangely unprepared in the early stages of the Manchester derby – with players like Raheem Sterling choosing a bad day to have their worst game of the season. But City has been dominant in the second half of the season and will no doubt get back to winning ways to eventually win the league title by quite a margin.

Ralph Hasenhuttl celebrated his 100th game in charge at Southampton with a much-needed victory at the weekend. Sheffield United had been improving slightly, but the Saints regrouped after the early loss of Danny Ings to injury and came back stronger to end up comprehensively beating their host.

Che Adams came on for Ings and scored in that win, but he will find it tougher trying to get through the Manchester City defense on Wednesday. Although it is the attacking players that attract most of the attention when it comes to Guardiola’s side, his defense has by far the best goals-against record in the league and should be able to keep out Southampton here.

I would have gone for City to win this one before the weekend’s defeat. But now I am doubly sure that the home side to be victorious, as they will want to get over the Manchester derby defeat as soon as possible. Southampton will be limited without Ings, but the home win here is virtually assured anyway.