Confirmed Line-Ups: Southampton vs Manchester City (Premier League) | OneFootball

Manchester City take on Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon knowing that a victory and certain results elsewhere could secure their goal.

Given the fact Pep Guardiola and his players had exited the race for a fifth consecutive Premier League title many months ago, the focus since the turn of the year had immediately switched over to securing UEFA Champions League football for the following campaign.

While that may have looked a precarious situation earlier in the campaign, the club’s form in recent weeks has put them within touching distance of the European places having been unbeaten across all competitions in the last nine matches.

The latest of those results came against Vitor Pereira’s impressive Wolves side, who put in a strong showing at the Etihad Stadium but ultimately fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of a single Kevin De Bruyne strike.

Southampton on the other hand remain in a difficult run of form having already been relegated from the Premier League, failing to win a game in any competition since February 1 and with interim head coach Simon Rusk seeing out the remainder of the campaign.

Having seen a significant number of players return to full first-team training over the course of the last few weeks, namely longer-term absentees Rodri and Erling Haaland, Manchester City now have just Nathan Ake and John Stones as their only sidelined stars due to injury.

Ahead of kick-off at St Mary’s Stadium, here is how both Simon Rusk and Pep Guardiola have lined up their respective Southampton and Manchester City sides in Premier League action!

Southampton

Starting XI: Ramsdale; Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens, Welington; Fernandes, Downes, Ugochukwu, Sulemana; Dibling.

Substitutes: McCarthy, Manning, Sugawara, Wood, Smallbone, Aribo, Archer, Stewart, Onuachu.

Manchester City

Starting XI: Ederson; Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Bernardo, De Bruyne (C); McAtee, Haaland, Foden.

Substitutes: Ortega Moreno, Nunes, O’Reilly, Nico, Gundogan, Doku, Savinho, Marmoush, Grealish.