Manchester City closed to within five points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a comfortable 4-1 win at Southampton on Saturday.
Erling Haaland scored his 43rd goal of the season with a close-range header on the stroke of half-time before Jack Grealish doubled the visitors’ lead on 58 minutes, steering home the rebound after Saints goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu saved his initial effort.
Grealish then turned provider for Haaland to volley home his 30th Premier League goal of the season. Sekou Mara scored his first Southampton goal with a sidefooted finish after fine work from fellow substitute Moussa Djenepo on 72 minutes.
Haaland was withdrawn for the final 21 minutes and his replacement, Julian Alvarez, converted a 75th-minute penalty after Kevin De Bruyne was fouled by Kyle Walker-Peters.
Rapid reaction
1. City pile pressure on Arsenal again
This is the fourth consecutive Premier League weekend in which Manchester City have played before Arsenal and they cut the deficit to the leaders on each occasion. The Gunners have repeatedly responded to that pressure but must now do so by winning on Sunday at Liverpool — a ground where they haven’t won a league game since 2012 — to re-establish an eight-point lead at the top of the table.
City were methodical in the first-half and threatened to run riot in the second against a team rooted to the bottom of the table and bereft of any sustained self-belief. Guardiola was able to rest Haaland and Rodri as the game wore on and the danger for Arsenal is City are increasingly looking like getting into one of those relentless winning runs.
This was their eighth consecutive win in all competitions and although two Champions League games against Bayern Munich will strongly test their ability to keep it going, City are showing clear signs now of peaking at the business end of the season.
