Southampton vs Man City: Haaland's double and De Bruyne's 100th assist helps City with 4-1 victory

Pep Guardiola's boys demolish the saints 4-1 during Southampton vs Man City with De Bruyne's 100th assist and Haaland reaching 30 goals.

Southampton vs Man City: Match Summary

Haaland returned to the starting line-up as the only change from the team that beat Liverpool 4-1 last weekend.

Despite being bottom of the table, Guardiola predicted a difficult game against a side fighting for their Premier League lives.

Ruben Selles, the third Saints coach that we have faced this season, tried to get his side to force City to play deep in their own half in the early stages as we dominated possession.

We found a way through inside five minutes with a sweeping move, as we moved the ball quickly from front to back, that ended with Gundogan feeding the ball to Grealish, but his low shot was batted away by Gavin Bazunu and just beyond the onrushing De Bruyne.

Gundogan had an attempt on goal himself with a well-struck volley from the edge of the box that was deflected wide. From the resulting corner, Kamaldeen Sulemana pounced on a loose pass but as he raced clear, Nathan Ake was able to steer him wide of goal and Ederson dived at his feet.

Former EDS player Romeo Lavia was impressive in midfield for the home side and his quick feet on the edge of the box created another opening for Sulemana but his cross drifted wide.

Southampton were working hard to make it difficult to create chances and it took until the 40th minute for Haaland to get his first real sight of goal with a far-post header from De Bruyne's deflected cross that was just off-target.

But he made no mistake on the stroke of half-time when De Bruyne curled in a perfect cross that Haaland headed in from six yards out.

Second Half:

City pushed forward for a second after the break and Gundogan went close in the 50th minute with a curling effort that drifted beyond the far post.

The second came innot long after with a quick move involving Haaland and De Bruyne who released Grealish. His left foot strike was kept out by Bazunu but the ball came straight back to the winger who made no mistake with the outside of his right foot.

The rebound meant that De Bruyne was denied another assist and he was unlucky not to create another when his pass carved open the Saints defence for Bernardo but he was kept out by Bazunu.

But the third soon followed with an astonishing volley from Haaland to spectacularly convert Grealish's cross and the Norwegian was immediately replaced by Julian Alvarez.

Substitute Mara fired in a low finish after good work from winger Moussa Djenepo to pull a goal back.

However, City re-stablished their three-goal lead when Alvarez scored a penalty after De Bruyne was brought down by Kyle Walker-Peters.

For more Southampton vs Man City news, follow Sportz Point.