There is a case for calling this Russell Martin’s best result as a Premier League manager. Which, if true, means an achievement is also an indictment. But what threatened to be the biggest mismatch in the division was decided by a lone goal. Southampton left the Etihad Stadium unbloodied but with one point to show from their nine games. Manchester City departed top of the league.
Much as the scoreline suggested Southampton surpassed expectations, there was still a predictability. A home match against a lesser side can come with the guarantee of a City win, the near-guarantee of an Erling Haaland goal. The surprise may be that the Norwegian got only one. Haaland has had an intriguing week, scoring one of his most remarkable goals, with his spectacular volley against Sparta Prague, but missing several simpler chances. He has three goals to show for two games at the Etihad Stadium but could have had hat-tricks in each.
He has not been clinical but, on Wednesday, Pep Guardiola noted one of the idiosyncratic features of Haaland’s game. If the Norwegian has very few touches, a very high percentage of them can be shots. Even as Southampton sought to crowd him out, with three centre-backs in a packed penalty area, as Haaland had only 20 touches, eight of them were goal attempts.
City’s eventual tally stood at 22. Obdurate as Southampton were, defeat could have been heavier Within a couple of minutes, Taylor Harwood-Bellis made a goal-line clearance to repel Haaland’s header and there was a barely credible miss from the Norwegian, shooting wide from two yards after the impressive Savinho’s low cross. Late, there was a similarly strange moment when, with the goal gaping, Haaland tried to head the ball to a teammate instead. In the 96th minute, Aaron Ramsdale made him a fine block to deny him a second goal.
He only showed his ruthless streak once but crucially. “Many times it happens,” said Guardiola. “It is not the first time that thanks to Erling we win the game.” After three league matches without a goal, Haaland struck inside five minutes. If tugged back by Jan Bednarek and losing his balance, he still managed to half-volley in Matheus Nunes’ cross. It was a third assist in two games for the Portuguese, who has been productive on the left as he capitalised on the absences of Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish.
Southampton’s shot count was rather more slender: there were two rising efforts from the substitute Adam Armstrong and a golden chance on the stroke of half-time as Cameron Archer streaked clear and rattled the bar. After a spurned penalty against Manchester United, it may have counted as his second costly miss against the Manchester teams this season.
History, however, suggested Southampton stood little chance here. For City, it was the 32nd consecutive league game without defeat, a 52nd home match without losing anything except a penalty shootout. City will now bring up two years undefeated at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League.
This reflected features of that invincibility, by-products of Guardiola’s excellence. Sometimes there are routes, sometimes games relatively devoid of drama. This was the latter. Opponents tend to go on the defensive against them. If there were reasons to wonder if Southampton would suffer their third 9-0 defeat in the Premier League, they instead showed considerable resolve.
“I have nothing but pride and gratitude for the players because if we are going to lose we have to do it our way,” said Martin. It hadn’t felt that way recently, he admitted. This time, Southampton were not the architects of their downfall.
They played 5-4-1, a method of frustrating City of late marked by a policy of defending in numbers. There were extended impasses that they negotiated with few alarms, albeit often with all 10 outfield players within 30 yards of Ramsdale.
But Guardiola was complimentary. “I want to see the opponent doing the things I like,” he said. Martin added: “He probably understands it better than anyone. The courage to play football was brilliant.” If Ramsdale’s habit of giving the ball away indicated how Southampton’s efforts to pass out from the back threatened to be a false economy. However, Martin said: “I will live and die by the sword for what I believe in. If we keep playing like we did today we will have some fun and be alright.”
And while Southampton’s spells of possession often still left them confined to their own half, by having the ball for 42 per cent of the match, they at least relieved the pressure. And perhaps they eased some pressure on Martin, too: to have a lone point after a quarter of the season is wretched but this was a respectable reverse. Games against Everton and Wolves may determine if this damage-limitation exercise spares him the ultimate punishment.