Perhaps the easiest game of the season to predict since the trip to Anfield back in September, can we repeat that scoreline at the Etihad ?
Surely there is no other result possible that a Manchester City home win by a landslide ? after all City have won 13 and lost 1 of their 14 home games so far, scoring 48 goals and conceding only 9 in the process, even the most optimistic Saints supporter will know that this fixture is going to be tough.
But we can take heart from that victory at Anfield, back then Liverpool had won all their games and only one result seemed possible, especially as Saints had hardly made a storming start to the season at that point.
But back to today's fixture, it is hard to see any other result than a City home win, but perhaps we can catch them on an off day and rattle them with our high pressing game, of course the downside of playing that way is that we can be open to quick counter attacks and City can be blistering on those.
Hopefully though Mauricio Pochettino has a few bodies back and can set out his stall as we did at Anfield, work hard, get men behind the ball and then try and catch them on the break ourselves or at set pieces, there will be those that will say we that you should play to your own strengths and not make your tactics about countering the opposition, that is fine when you are playing a team that is of a similar ability, but when you are playing a team that at home is better than everyone else then you have to stop them first and then think about scoring etc.
Its going to need workhorses out there this afternoon, I suspect this is a game to start Rickie on the bench and look to bring him on later in the game as an impact sub, therefore I would like to see Saints line up like this
Boruc
Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, Shaw
Lallana Schneiderlin, Cork JWP Davis
Rodriguez
In fairness that's probably the best team we could put out for a game of this nature and it is capable of springing a surprise or two. The return of Morgan Schneiderlin to the starting line up in my opinion will be the key element for us.
But work rate is wasted if we make the type of errors that we saw at White Hart Lane a couple of weeks ago, in that game some good work was completely undone by a series of errors, all three goals conceded that day could have and should have been defended and not conceded, we just cant afford to make those sort of lapses in concentration against City, they will slaughter us.
This is the game that all Premier teams want to get out of the way, like Old Trafford used to be like, its a banker home win and if you get lucky and get something out of it then its a bonus, history tells us that once or twice a season club with a home record like this will slip up so there is hope, but it is only once or twice a season, the glimmer of hope is that so far its only been once so the odds say their is scope for a second slip up.
City themselves have a lot to play for, if they win their two games in hand over leaders Liverpool they overtake them and the key fixture will be their visit to Anfield, if our prayers were answered and we were to beat them today, then the demographics of the league change and the onus will have swung away from City, Chelsea are at home to Stoke and will look to get three points there, Liverpool travel to West Ham on Sunday, if they win that they put pressure on City anyway so anything less than a win against us is a severe setback to the new top club in Manchester.