It was only 20 months ago that Saints returned to the Premier League and played their opening fixture, it would be the start of a tough baptism of fire, however a lot of things have changed since then and mostly for the better.

In football it is constant evolvment, whether it be the manager where few survive more than two years in the hot seat or in the playing staff, of course on August 19th 2012 when we travelled up to the Etihad it was Nigel Adkins in Charge, this season it will be Mauricio Pochettino who despite only being boss at St Mary's for a little over a year is one of the longest serving managers in the Premier League.

On the field the team that starts on Saturday will be much changed from its predecessor, or it would be normally, but with injuries it looks like 6 of the starting line up back then will start on Saturday, of the 18 on duty, 5 have left the club albeit some on loan and another 5 will be unlikely to start on against City.

The biggest changes however are at the back, of the five defensive players including the Keeper only Jose Fonte is first choice, back the line up was Kelvin Davis, Nathan Clyne, Jose Fonte, Jos Hooiveld, Danny Fox, only Fonte is likely to start this time out although Hooiveld will be on the bench as will probably Nathan Clyne if fit as this looks a game more suited to Callum Chambers.

This defence though shows just how ill suited we were to kick off the Premier campaign, Nigel Adkins had famously been chasing a centre back and a keeper all summer but seemed to be blocked in his efforts with our then transfer committee preferring to chase more flamboyant options.

K Davis, J Hooiveld, D Fox , J Fonte, N Clyne, J Ward-Prowse (S Davis, 65), J Puncheon (B Sharp, 86), A Lallana, M Schneiderlin yellow card, G Do Prado, J Rodriguez (R Lambert, 55)
Subs not used: P Gazzaniga, D Seaborne, L Shaw, F Richardson

Looking at that line up its a surprise we did as well as we did in the game, Carlos Tevez opened the scoring five minutes before the break after Kelvin Davis had saved a penalty, in the second half Rickie Lambert equalised four minutes after coming on and then Steven Davis himself another sub repeated the feat on his debut this time only three minutes into his Saints career prompting the Saints fans to do the "Poznan"

The joy would not last long, three minutes to be exact before Dzeko equalised and it would be a long 20 minutes, City won it with 10 of those to go, but Saints knew they had put in a good performance and could look forward to a good season, ultimately we did have that season but it took a long time to get it right due to our poor performance in the transfer market.

But 20 months on things are a lot different, Saints chances of a victory at City are probably no better then they were in August 2012, City are an even better side now, but we have improved the squad and have a crop of youngsters maturing fast, including an unknown Luke Shaw who sat on the bench that day as an unused sub, Manchester City would like to see him at the Etihad a lot more often according to the press.

But the message is clear, Saints have improved their set up both on and off the pitch since that opening day fixture, if we can make the same progress in the next 20 months as we have in the last then things will truly be moving forward.

Photo: Action Images

aceofthebase added 20:47 - Apr 2 This is the game where we can judge whether our 'England' players are up to the mark or will they be overwhelmed by this top club. I reckon they will show their class and give Man city a good game.
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