“It wasn’t a good week for us – we lost two games”. However, the second half performance from Koemen’s side was positive and he will be hoping they can earn victory over Liverpool in the Capital One Cup in the week before welcoming Aston Villa to St. Mary’s next Saturday.
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After a tough week for Manchester City, the Sky Blues are back in action against Southampton. Caballero is anxious to redeem himself after the Tottenham disaster, and a hungry defense will also be looking to prove that they can shut down a Southampton team that has not lost on the away from home this year.
The Saints have a big absentee in the form of Graziano Pelle, who is suspended for this match, as Shane Long prepares to take up the No. 9 role in place of the Italian.
He said: “The referee wasn’t better for one side than the other side, but he made very odd decisions during the game”. “We will see tomorrow [Sunday]”.
The Dutchman said: “It is not a question about tactics, about players or about the line-up if we make the kind of mistakes we did in the first 20 minutes”.
Pellegrini highlighted how Silva’s influence is crucial to City’s attack, and that this quality will be needed in the unpredictable Premier League.
Caballero continued to curse the absence of Vincent Kompany in the defence in front of him after half-time, Otamendi giving away a risky free-kick which Mane swung in onto the head of Long, who gave the stand-in keeper no chance with his back-post header. He last played in the top flight for Everton nine years ago and has not played a competitive game at any level since appearing for Ipswich in 2011.
City were rocking at that point but Kolarov – picked out by De Bruyne – finished through a crowd of players to restore calm, and Pellegrini even had the luxury of sending on David Silva late on for his first appearance in nearly two months.
“Of course it was not a good week for us”.
After consecutive defeats to Liverpool and Juventus, Pellegrini was pleased City returned to winning ways, insisting they can not afford to drop more points at home in the Premier League. Southampton has three wins, one draw and one loss in their last five matches.
“I spoke with Sergio before the game and he was not going to play more than 65 minutes”, the manager said in a news conference.
But from the resultant corner, City doubled their lead with in just the 20th minute.
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Hart is crucial to City’s fortunes and his injury is the latest to inflict Pellegrini’s squad, which suddenly looks vulnerable.
