Thursday 19 / December / 2024
Manchester : Pep Guardiola's Manchester City will face Southampton at St. Mary's Stadium on Saturday to reignite their hopes of clinching the Premier League title for the fifth time in the six seasons.
Even though Manchester City have fared well in the Premier League but they have been outclassed by Arsenal's consistency this season. But still, they have enough time on their hands to turn the season completely around. Before the Blues enter the climax of the Premier League season their chances of lifting the title have recieved a huge boost as the Norwegian goal scoring machine Erling Haaland has regained his fitness and he will be ready to feature against Southampton.
"He trained the last two days, really good. He will be ready. Bayern Munich is the last thought. It's Southampton. Premier League is every day, every week," Pep said in the pre-match conference.
"In terms of physicality, we've got two months to go. We're not training to get rhythm. Sleep a lot eat well. Do it well, focus," Pep continued.
Manchester City's chances of lifting the Premier League title are slim a single loss in the final set of games will definitely serve as the killing blow.
"The last part of the season, no more international break, it depends on us how many games we're going to play, Premier League for sure, Champions League, FA Cup. Win games we alive, don't win and we are out," Pep said.
Premier League title defenders will be up against a side which has gone through some managerial changes two months ago. As a manager Pep studies every aspect of his opponent. He has found it hard to produce results against those teams which have gone through sudden managerial changes. But in this case he has had enough time to understand the philosophy of Southampton manager Ruben Selles.
"If manager was appointed yesterday it would be difficult but they've played a few games with the new manager. The patterns are quite clear. Every team is playing for something, a fight for the Premier League and a fight to be in the Premier League. Every game has its own characteristic and you have to be ready. Southampton have always been so tough there, the game we made it to 100 points they were much better than us, we've drawn before. It's tough and I have a feeling tomorrow won't be an exception," Pep said.
