Southampton added further weight behind their tilt to secure European football next season, coming out on top in a high-scoring affair with Manchester City at St. Mary’s Stadium.
Sadio Mané silenced his doubters after a man of the match hat-trick performance to help lend a strong finish to what has been an up-and-down season. Shane Long continued his impressive form, grabbing the opener to bring his league tally into double figures and his record to three goals from his past four games.
Manchester City could have hardly hoped for a less convincing performance leading into a season defining second leg clash with Real Madrid midweek to determine who will contest in the final of the UEFA Champions League.
Young gun Kelechi Iheanacho was the only bright spark in the City team, grabbing himself a brace for the second league match in succession. Manuel Pellegrini could use the excuse of fielding a second rate team in the idea of resting players for the Bernabeu clash but now faces the very serious possibility of dropping outside the top four.
Southampton
Fraser Forster – 6: Not overly busy but made a couple of decent saves. Not really at fault for either goal conceded.
Ryan Bertrand – 6.5: Overlapped well and was reasonably solid in defence.
José Fonte – 6.5: Very solid in defence and added to the attack as well.
Virgil van Dijk – 7: Dominant defensively and it was his header off the bar that set up Mané’s second.
Cuco Martina – 7.5: Helped to overload Kolarov and provided several threatening deliveries.
Jordy Clasie – 6.5: Covered a lot of ground and distributed the ball effectively.
Victor Wanyama – 6.5: Won the ball on several occasions and was effective in dominating the City midfield.
Dusan Tadić – 8: Another good day for the Serbian, managing to grab three assists in this game.
Steven Davis – 7: As per usual, his work rate greatly helped out his side and his efforts added greatly to the attack.
Sadio Mané – 9: Near-perfect day from the Senegalese winger, dominating the City defence, bursting through time and time again. Deserving off his hat-trick.
Shane Long – 7.5: Opened the scoring and his movement saw lots of space created in the attacking third.
Substitutes
Oriol Romeu – 6: Kept things ticking in midfield after his introduction. Substituted on for Clasie in the 59th minute.
James Ward-Prowse – 5.5: Was brought on when the game seemed over and perhaps his performance reflected that a little. Substituted on for Davis in the 73rd minute.
Jay Rodriguez – N/A: Substituted on for Tadić in the 87th minute.
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