Southampton ended Manchester City’s winning run of 12 Premier League games after battling away to a 1-1 draw with the league leaders.
Kyle Walker-Peters sensationally put the Saints in front after a fine team move and finish but Aymeric Laporte headed Pep Guardiola’s side level in the second half. City struck the woodwork twice late on but could not find a winner.
City are now 12 points clear of Liverpool at the top but Jurgen Klopp’s team do have two games in hand.
The opening goal from Southampton was one Pep Guardiola would have been proud of had his side scored it. A switch of play saw Walker-Peters join the attack and his one-two with Nathan Redmond confused the City defence and allowed him the space to fire home a tasty half volley into the far corner. Not a bad way to score your first Premier League goal.
City’s first-half performance was described as “shocking” by Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness as they took 27 minutes to register their first shot on goal and even that was a speculative effort from Joao Cancelo that flew into the stands.
Player ratings
Southampton: Forster (7), Bednarek (7), Perraud (7), Salisu (8), Walker-Peters (8), Romeu (7), Ward-Prowse (8), S.Armstrong (7), Redmond (7), Broja (8), Adams (7)
Subs: Lyanco (7), Diallo (7), Elyounoussi (7)
Man City: Ederson (7), Walker (7), Laporte (8), Dias (7), Cancelo (7), Rodri (7), De Bruyne (7), Silva (7), Grealish (6), Foden (6), Sterling (5)
Subs: Jesus (7)
Man of the match: Kyle Walker-Peters
A second-half onslaught towards the Southampton goal was expected but it was the home side that should have extended their lead. Ederson was quick to react to a Jan Bednarek header from close range before Armando Broja headed against the post following another dangerous James Ward-Prowse corner. Bednarek also had a chance from the rebound but blazed over to spare City.
Missing chances like that will always come to haunt you against City, who drew level on 65 minutes. A Kevin De Bruyne set-piece was drifted towards the back post and three City players were waiting to head home. It was left to Laporte to bullet the cross home meaning Saints have conceded 11 headed goals this season – no team have shipped more.
The goal lifted City to the levels we expect of them. De Bruyne – now running the show – bent a sumptuous effort off the frame of the goal before substitute Gabriel Jesus managed to hit the same post moments later after attacking a back-post cross.
City wanted a penalty on 78 minutes when De Bruyne was sandwiched on the edge of the box by Mohammed Salisu and Oriel Romeu but a VAR decided to stick with the on-field penalty call. It was a busy few minutes at Stockley Park as Stuart Armstong survived a VAR review for a high lunge on Laporte that was only deemed worthy of a yellow card.
A City winner looked nailed-on but credit to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team, they regained organisation and held on valiantly for their point.
‘City got away with one’
Sky Sports’ Graeme Souness said:
“I think they [City] got away with one today. They were not at their best.
“They were a yard short in the way they ping the ball around. The top players, they fire the ball at each other and they’re trusting the guy they’re serving the ball to control it.
“But tonight I thought it was passive passing, and if it’s slow passing it allows the Southampton player to get to the ball and close it down.
“I thought at half-time they would’ve got a roasting from the manager and come out a very different team. I think they tried to up their game, but the game had been set in its way.
“I’ve been in that situation, when you appear to be coasting to a league championship and you get a game like that where you didn’t lose and you got away with it.
“That’s a golden opportunity for management and staff to get after them tomorrow or Monday morning and point out to them that we have won nothing yet.”
Analysis: Hasenhuttl deserves more credit
Sky Sports’ Lewis Jones:
Southampton are a team going places with a manager that is proving he is a dab hand at significantly improving players without the need to spend big money.
Just look at their two outstanding performers in this impressive draw. Walker-Peters, a £12m purchase from Tottenham, scored a goal that Guardiola would have been proud of if his team had scored it while Salisu, a £10.9m investment from Real Valladolid, put in his best performance in a Southampton shirt to repel City’s array of attacking stars. He is getting better and better under the watch of Hasenhuttl.
Hasenhuttl’s style of football, which demands non-stop pressing, creativity from out wide, and a team focused on turning oppositions with quick counter-attacking football, caused City problems in transitions. The direct running of Armando Broja meant Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias could never switch off.
When his team are hot, Southampton are hot. However, inconsistency has hindered progress, to the extent he was nearly dismissed after an embarrassing 9-0 thrashing by Leicester in October.
The remarkable turnaround has won Hasenhuttl and the club plenty of admirers. That the Southampton hierarchy stood by their man and he rewarded that faith, suggests an impressive structure within the club is in place. To avoid defeat in two matches this season against the team running away with this Premier League title is a remarkable achievement. Hasenhuttl is an elite manager. He deserves more respect for the job he is undertaking.
