Instead Claudio Ranieri’s side finished the day in second place, a point above United, with Manchester City top on goal difference after overcoming Southampton 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
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Kolarov secured the win for City when he finished off a flowing passing move by drilling in a shot across the keeper – assisted again by De Bruyne – and even though Southampton pushed hard for a late comeback the best of the remaining chances fell to the home side.
Cabellero, who last appeared in the Premier League in the 4-1 defeat at Tottenham in September, initially stood up well to keep out Tadic’s effort, but with the loose ball dropping to Long, the Argentine goalkeeper reacted quickly to block the Irishman’s effort.
Speaking at a pre-match news conference, manager Manuel Pellegrini confirmed that he expects Hart to be out for around 10 days, which would also rule the 28-year-old out of next Tuesday’s League Cup quarter-final against Hull City and the subsequent Premier League trip to Stoke City.
Kevin De Bruyne, Fabian Delph and Aleksandar Kolarov were on target as Manchester City beat Southampton 3-1.
Saints then lost skipper Jose Fonte to injury, but a revival began to take root and by the end of the half Willy Caballero had steadied his nerves with saves from Long and Victor Wanyama while watching a Van Dijk strike rebound off the bar.
“It’s important to have David back – he is a very important player, the same as Kun”.
The Saints sit eight in the table after 13 games and are just six points off City in third.
In a worrying sign for City, though, Aguero limped off with an apparent ankle injury an hour in, although the team did get a boost when David Silva came off the bench after a nine-game injury layoff.
But Pellegrini said: “He took a kick on the heel and we’ll see tomorrow how it is”. According to Opta Joe, the Belgian has assisted more goals than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues since the start of last season. “I am sure he will have a good performance in these games”.
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”. 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.
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“If you lose the ball to players like Sterling they will punish you”.
