This FA cup tie against Southampton is a must win for us!
Most people believe that Southampton is where the decline of Man City’s fabulous form began. It seemed like a normal premier league game where we would be comfortable in the end. But, i must say that nothing about that game was comforting. It would have been okay for me if we had lost that game due to Southampton scoring a penalty or nicking a set peice. But, the worrying fact was that Southampton went toe to toe with us and infact they produced a template on how to beat us. The same template was used by spurs later on to trouble us. To top it all up, Everton almost got a point against us following the same style of play as Southampton.
Pep has let out a rallying war cry calling City to treat this as a must win game in his press conference. I remember Pep doing this before the Liverpool game in the 2018-19 season when we won the league by just 1 point. After that, this is the only time he has done that. This means that Pep thinks this game will be very crucial in terms of gaining momentum. City have been on and off in the last few months and Pep realizes that to go punch to punch with this Liverpool side, you need to give more than everything you have.
Also, Liverpool are in all the competitions and ahave a potential of winning the quadruple. So, we could potentially have a chance of stopping them in their tracks. Above all these things i think that momentum is what pep is really keen on. What i feel is that City need to win all their remaining games to win the Premier League and confidence will be a key part of it. We did it previously in 2018-19 and there is no reason why it can’t be done now. The only thing is that we need to be Mentally strong and have the belief to bounce back even when we are a goal down. I firmly believe that this title race will be decided on mentality and personality over all of the talent that is present on the pitch.
Today, Southampton will press our defenders with their forwards like Crystal Palace did and bomb forward with runners like Spurs did. So, this will be a game that will test our tactcical acumen and we will have the chance to show that we have learnt from all of our mistakes sinc ethe turn of the year. Also, Sterling missed an open goal against Southampton. So, this match could be a great confidence booster for Sterling if pep starts him.
This is a sort of game that could give you a spring board to launch yourself for the rest of the season. This might just be the game that could prove as a turning point in our season.
