Southampton vs Manchester City

St Mary’s Stadium forms the backdrop for a tasty-looking League Cup quarter-final tie between Southampton and Manchester City.

Premier League basement boys Southampton halted an underwhelming three-game losing streak by beating Crystal Palace 1-0 in last weekend’s FA Cup tie, bolstering their spirits ahead of this clash. However, Nathan Jones’ men have lost back-to-back home outings ahead of this encounter, while they’ve suffered elimination seven times in their last eight League Cup quarter-final appearances, barring a 2-0 victory over Arsenal in 2016/17. Man City’s visit is unlikely to bring a change of fortunes, with the ‘Saints’ picking up a meager one triumph in their last 15 meetings with the ‘Cityzens’ across all competitions (D3, L11), including a brace of multi-goal margin defeats in their two most recent H2Hs. But no strangers to going the distance, three of Southampton’s last five League Cup ties have gone to penalties.

In the meantime, Manchester City swept Chelsea aside with an overwhelming 4-0 triumph in last weekend’s FA Cup showdown, maintaining their 100% unbeaten ratio in the post-World Cup period (W4, D1). Pep Guardiola’s side ousted Liverpool 3-2 in the previous League Cup round to reach the competition’s quarter-finals, where they’ve been victorious in their last eight appearances. Guardiola has proved himself a specialist in this tournament, as he has only lost two of his 29 League Cup fixtures in charge of Man City (W22, D5), with both of those defeats coming at the hands of Manchester United. Against this backdrop, the reigning Premier League champions had found themselves on the losing side in three consecutive League Cup ties against Southampton before dismantling them 3-1 in their most recent H2H back in 2019/20.