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Manchester City battled their way back to the Premier League summit as Erling Haaland netted the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Southampton at the Etihad Stadium.
Haaland was on target early on with a clinical finish from inside the area, though City were unusually profligate in front of goal for the rest of Saturday’s contest.
Cameron Archer missed the visitors’ best chance with an effort that struck the woodwork just before the interval.
Haaland passed up two fantastic chances to make the scoreline more comfortable after the break, though City ultimately got the job done to move top ahead of
Sunday’s clash between Arsenal and Liverpool. Southampton, meanwhile, are bottom of the pile, with just one point from their opening nine games.
How the match unfolded
Haaland needed just five minutes to break the deadlock as he got himself in front of Jan Bednarek to turn Matheus Nunes’ cross home.
Nunes and Mateo Kovacic threatened with efforts from distance before City had a penalty appeal turned down, with VAR upholding the referee’s judgment that Taylor Harwood-Bellis had not purposefully handled in the area.
For all City’s dominance, Southampton spurned a glorious chance to go level in first-half stoppage time – Cameron Archer’s shot at the end of a counter clattering the crossbar.
Haaland then missed three opportunities in the space of two minutes after the break, seeing a header cleared off the line by Harwood-Bellis and the one saved by Aaron Ramsdale, before somehow putting Savinho’s cross wide at the far post.
Southampton substitute Adam Armstrong twice went close before Haaland was again thwarted by Ramsdale in stoppage time, albeit his wasteful finishing did not come back to bite Pep Guardiola’s team.
City fail to turn dominance into goals
City were unable to make their opportunities count in an attempt to improve their goal difference against their closest title rivals, and if they had been facing a team with a bit more clinical edge than Southampton, they would perhaps have been punished.
Haaland was still City’s difference maker but will surely be disappointed not to have scored more, despite adding an 11th league goal of the season to his tally.
The Norwegian’s most glaring miss was when he uncharacteristically placed Savinho’s delivery wide with the goal at his mercy.
City’s goal difference of +11 is only bettered by Arne Slot’s Liverpool, who will be looking to cash in on the champions’ wastefulness at the Emirates against Arsenal on Sunday. In a title race that looks set to be so tight, though, then there may not be any margin for error, and Guardiola will likely be hammering it into his players that next time out, they must rediscover that finishing touch to put games to bed.
They face Tottenham in the EFL Cup in midweek, with a trip to Bournemouth next up in the league.
Saints impress… but remain winless
Much has been made of Southampton’s commitment to sticking to their possession-based principles under Russell Martin, but they again impressed against a potential Premier League title contender, having also gone toe-to-toe with Arsenal.
Haaland’s goal did not deter them from building up from the back, though they were almost undone when Ramsdale’s poor pass was picked off by Bernado Silva, but the resulting attack was well defended by Harwood-Bellis.
The visitors’ frustrations began to show when Flynn Downes was shown a yellow card for his protests after a tackle on Silva, with Martin also cautioned.
Saints knew chances would be rare and needed to take them when they arrived, with Archer’s first-half strike the closest they came to breaching City’s defence.
The introduction of towering forward Paul Onuachu offered them a different option for the final knockings, but Southampton remain winless and are now looking up at the rest of the league from 20th. There is only so far good performances get a team – eventually, they need to be turned into positive results.
Club reports
Man City report | Southampton report
Match officials
Referee: Tony Harrington. Assistants: Derek Eaton, Akil Howson. Fourth official: Sam Allison. VAR: David Coote. Assistant VAR: Simon Long.
PREMIER LEAGUE