Southampton travel to the Etihad stadium for an intriguing contest between two teams who haven’t had the best of results lately
The confirmed team news for Manchester City vs Southampton –
Manchester City:
Manchester City suffered a casualty in full-back Pablo Zabaleta in their 4-0 loss at Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday. The defender suffered a knock during the game and had to be subbed off at 57 mins, which rules him out of the Sunday’s clash against the Saints though he’s expected to be fit for the Manchester Derby.
Bacary Sagna suffered a hamstring tear on international duty for France during the most recent international break which ruled him out for at least 3 week, which takes him out of the contention for Southampton.
With both the right-backs injured, Pep might give a taste of the Premier League to young defender Pablo Maffeo. Though the manager could also stick with 3 at the back defense of Otamendi – Stones – Clichy he used against Everton in the previous match-week.
Vincent Kompany was reportedly match fit for the Barcelona game, but manager Pep Guardiola decided against including him in the match day squad. Kompany could be touch and go for the match on Sunday.
Barring Fabian Delph, whose extent of injury is still not known, rest of the squad members are fit for the clash.
Southampton:
Saints boss Claude Puel has confirmed striker Shane Long will miss the trip to Manchester after pulling with a hamstring problem agaisnt Inter in their Europe League group-stage fixture, after which he had to taken off by the manager.
Full-backs Ryan Bertrand, Matt Targett and Cédric Soares are 50-50 for Sunday’s clash and will be taking a late test to determine their fitness for the game. Both Bertrand and Targett had sustained hamstring strains while Cédric is recovering from an ankle injury.
Nathan Redmond had a slight niggle agaisnt Inter due to which he couldn’t feature in the match, however he’s expected to be back fit for Manchester City.