Manchester City went back to the top of the Premier League as Erling Haaland’s early effort proved enough to beat struggling Southampton.

When Haaland shrugged off Jan Bednarek to turn Matheus Nunes’ fifth-minute cross beyond Saints keeper Aaron Ramsdale for his 11th league goal of the season, the visitors seemed set for a heavy defeat.

But a combination of their own dogged defending and some poor finishing from City, with Haaland the chief culprit, ensured a few home nerves before the final whistle.

The result extended City’s unbeaten Premier League record to 32 games. They are now only six weeks away from going a full 12 months since their last defeat, by Aston Villa on 6 December.

Although they deserve credit for the way they battled, the result did nothing to help Southampton’s problems towards the foot of the table.

Russell Martin’s men still only have a single point to their name almost a quarter of the way through the campaign.

They can take solace from the knowledge that the only previous time they failed to win any of their first nine games, in 1998-99, they stayed up, but Martin needs to hope Southampton’s owners show him some patience as he looks to change the club’s fortunes following their return to the top flight.

Given City’s lengthy injury list, manager Pep Guardiola will be delighted with a victory that means his side can see how Arsenal go on against Liverpool from a position of authority, and to have suffered no more problems.

Haaland, though, will wonder how on earth he only came away with a single goal, which takes his tally to 14 in all competitions this season.

A ripped shirt was the legacy of his physical battle with Bednarek but two head-in-hands moments were the end product of his failure to score more than once.

The Norwegian was only a yard out at the start of the second period when he pounced on Savinho’s far-post cross. Somehow he put the ball wide. Haaland, like everyone else in the stadium, was left in stunned disbelief at that failure.

Haaland also couldn’t believe it when former City youngster Taylor Harwood-Bellis turned his header off the line. And he got his third opportunity, also at the far post, all wrong, when he only succeeded in turning what should have been a routine header back across goal for Southampton to clear.

His final opportunity came in stoppage time when he was sent running at the Southampton goal. This time Ramsdale made the block.

Aside from Haaland’s efforts, Phil Foden, on only his second Premier League start of the season, flashed a shot narrowly wide at the start of the second period.

It wasn’t pretty – or comfortable. But City got the job done, which is all that really matters.

In a game most felt Southampton would lose heavily, the return of Adam Lallana was a big plus for the visitors.

At 36, the former England midfielder cannot expect to play every minute of every game. But on days like this, his experience is invaluable.

Lallana’s reading of the game has always been good and over time he has developed into a leader who can guide team-mates into their correct positions.

There was no creative element to Lallana’s game against City but he made sure the home side knew their opponents were not going to roll over.

The same was also true of the officials as Lallana led the protests against a soft first-half booking for Flynn Downes, which also led to one for Martin, whose criticism of referee Tony Harrington to fourth official Sam Allison clearly went too far.

Lallana’s last act was to remonstrate with Allison himself after being replaced by Joe Aribo. By that point, Lallana had also been booked and he seemed to be telling Allison he had not committed as many offences as opponents who had not been shown a yellow card.

His job was done, though. He left with Southampton still in the game. And they carried that hope into the final minutes as substitute Paul Onuachu threatened to snatch an unlikely point.

But first goalkeeper Ederson then skipper Ruben Dias ensured the home side survived, so, while Southampton can take satisfaction from the performance, it still brought them no reward.

BDST: 0854 HRS, OCT 27, 2024
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