Southampton vs. Man City Betting Tips: Citizens to cruise past Saints

Saturdays late game kicks off on Sky Sports at 17:30 as Manchester City travel down to Southampton where both teams at opposite ends of the table will be looking for season defining points. Dean Woodward is our man in the tipping hot-seat for this one...

Southampton currently sit rock bottom of the Premier League table with twenty-three points and their job doesn’t get any easier as they welcome title challengers Manchester City to St Mary's Stadium just two weeks before facing the Premier League leaders Arsenal at the Emirates. Four points from safety and just nine matches to go, which include some very tough fixtures, their hopes of Premier League survival are looking bleak.

Two pivotal players to this Saints side, Che Adams and Mohammed Salisu, have been confirmed as still unfit due to picking up injuries on International duty. Southampton will likely keep the same XI that lost 1-0 to West Ham last weekend, with Theo Walcott set to start for the third successive game.

Manchester City sit just eight points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal, with one game in hand, but will be confident of taking all three points here and closing that gap at the top (Manchester City are priced at just 1/4 to win).

With a mouth-watering clash on Tuesday against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Pep may choose to manage minutes in certain areas. With Haaland back in training, it's unknown whether he will start at the weekend as Pep will most certainly have one eye on midweek, so there's a good chance World Cup winner Julian Alvarez gets another start up top. Phil Foden remains unavailable due to his recent appendix surgery, which means its likely in-form Jack Grealish retains his spot on the left flank. 

When one of the best teams in world football are priced at 1/4 for victory, it can often be tricky for bettors. However, backing Man City to win at half time/full time looks a great way to get the Citizens on side at close to even money.

Man City have been rampant these past few weeks, looking like they are in complete harmony with Pep's style of playing and putting all opposition to the sword. In their last three matches, they have managed to score seventeen goals (yes, seventeen!), putting four past Liverpool, six past Burnley and seven past RB Leipzig in the Champions League.

An early goal for Mo Salah meant City did not lead at half time last week, but they have led at half time in eight of their last eleven matches in all competitions and facing a side sitting rock bottom in the Premier League, who have failed to score in three of their last four games, City could quite easily get this game wrapped up nice and early on Saturday evening.

Fully expecting a dominant display from Pep's side, I think this featured selection from Betfair/PaddyPower offers some value. The last time these two sides met, Southampton pulled off a miracle and City left St Mary's with their tail between their legs after an impressive 2-0 victory for the Saints.

With the current form of these sides it's highly unlikely that will happen again, especially with City looking to make amends for the past meeting. The time they met previous to this back in October City ran out 4-0 winners, registering eight shots on target and nine corners compared to Southampton's zero shots on target and measly one corner.

I wouldn’t put it past this rampant City side to produce a repeat of last years meeting.