On paper Man City’s trip to Southampton should provide Pep Guardiola’s side with another three points, though teams in relegation trouble should never be taken for granted, and the City boss provided an update to reporters as to whether Erling Haaland would return to the attack for the match.
Saints supporters would surely be hoping not given the incredible goalscoring record the Norwegian has in his debut season for the Citizens.
According to BBC Sport, in 26 Premier League games this season, Haaland already has 28 goals and leads the charge towards the English top-flight’s Golden Boot award.
With City still in Arsenal’s slipstream at this point Guardiola needs all the help he can get to pile the pressure on the Gunners, and hope that their relative recent inexperience of a title run in will eventually prove to be what allows City to leapfrog them.
In order for that to be a possibility, however, Pep needs all of his best players out on the pitch and functioning at the highest level.
After a period out of the side with injury, Haaland’s availability was one of the questions put to Guardiola during his pre-match press conference.
In news that will delight fans of the club, the Catalan confirmed that the striker had trained well and would be ready to play in Saturday evening’s fixture.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola confirms that striker Erling Haaland will be ready to return to face Southampton on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/KHfHmxFqdE
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 7, 2023
With Southampton fighting for their Premier League lives and currently bottom of the table and four points from safety, that’s likely to be the news that they most feared.