Manchester City have defeated Southampton by 6- 1 at the Etihad Stadium to move back above Liverpool at the top of the Premier League
The Citizens had their ninth top-flight win of the season wrapped up with less than a quarter of the game played, finding themselves three goals to the good through a Wesley Hoedt own goal and strikes from Sergio Aguero and David Silva.
Danny Ings pulled one back for Southampton from the penalty spot, but Raheem Sterling added his name to the scoresheet with a couple of goals of his own either side of half time, before Leroy Sane rounded off the scoring in added time. City, who required a goal in the 96th and 94th minute to earn all three points in last season’s games against Southampton, have now scored five or more league goals in a league game under Pep Guardiola on 15 occasions.
Southampton headed into the match winless in six league matches and without a goal in five of them, and what was always going to be a difficult task was made even tougher when conceding six minutes in. One goal became two six minutes later as the division’s highest scorers went through the gears, with Aguero tapping in at the back post for his landmark 150th Premier League goal following some good work from Sterling.
City restored their three-goal advantage before the interval, however, thanks to Sterling’s simple finish past McCarthy after Aguero kept the ball in play and squared it to his teammate, though the Englishman required a couple of bites of the cherry after miscuing his initial shot.