But De Bruyne has made an immediate impact at City, his goal here taking his tally to seven in 14 appearances this season, as well as six assists.
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But Aleksandar Kolarov netted a typically rasping left-footed strike to settle the nerves and, on the back of Wednesday’s 1-0 Champions League loss at Juventus, Delph was happy to end a hard week on a positive note.
Manuel Pellegrini believes David Silva can offer Manchester City a different way of playing when he returns from injury against Southampton this weekend.
Driving Manchester rain promised a tricky afternoon for goalkeepers and Stekelenburg could not hold Kolarov’s fifth-minute free-kick, although he did well to grab the loose ball under pressure.
Leicester began the day in first place, scarcely believable given the team narrowly fought off relegation only last season, but slipped to second after conceding an equalizer to Bastian Schweinsteiger in first-half injury time.
Steven Davis was not penalised when a header from Fernandinho struck his arm, but from the resulting corner De Bruyne teed up Delph to drill home from 25 yards with the help of a deflection off defender Virgil van Dijk.
22′ – POST – Van Dijk very almost makes amends in spectacular fashion.
Long also drew a save from Willy Caballero – deputising for the injured Joe Hart – as Southampton threatened on the break.
Sterling fired over when presented with a great chance to make it 3-0 and Saints pulled one back early in the second half as Long powered in a header from a superb cross by Saido Mane.
Pellegrini insisted it was just a kick on his heel.
But City weathered the comeback attempt and took the sting out of the game with a third goal.
His replacement, Wilfried Bony, did much to settle the nerves with a delightful backheel to De Bruyne, who fed Kolarov to thump in his second of the season.
“On the first goal – if you lose that on that position on the pitch then you know against players like Sterling they will punish you for that. We will see tomorrow but I don’t think it was anything important”.
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City are unbeaten in their last four games against the Saints however, winning the last three and scoring nine goals in the process. With Liverpool, West Ham and Everton all going well at the moment, and Chelsea finally beginning to gain ground, Southampton face a big battle to qualify for the Europa League once more. Pellegrini said: “David is a very important player, the same as Kun – one of the players that is very hard to replace”.
