Rarely will you see a goalless draw for an already-relegated side celebrated as much as this one, but Southampton had a lot to cheer about after this stalemate with Man City.
There has been very, very little for Southampton to cheer about this season.
Bottom of the league for most of the campaign, relegated earlier (in terms of games played) than any other team has been before in the Premier League era, and having won only two games, they have been truly dreadful from start to finish.
Their aim for much of the second half of the season has been to beat Derby County’s record for the lowest points tally in Premier League history. Former manager Ivan Juric admitted as much in early April.
“The team has to be competing and try to do our best,” he said. “We have to be really motivated.
“I don’t want it to be that we are the worst team in the history of the Premier League.”
And now, after a hard-earned goalless draw with last season’s champions, Manchester City, Southampton can breathe again. There is now a ’12’ in their points column for the season, meaning they have moved past Derby’s record-worst tally of 11. Southampton can now proudly say they are officially not the worst team the Premier League has ever seen.
They had to work extremely hard for this draw. City came into the game hoping that they could chase down Arsenal in second place, and they are still not even certain of a spot in the Champions League next season, so they had plenty of motivation to win.
They dominated the game, with 26 shots (five on target) and 1.89 xG to Southampton’s two (none on target) and 0.11 xG. City had 72% possession and 69 touches in the Saints box, compared to just seven for Southampton in the City box.
Southampton restricted City to very few chances in the first half, but Pep Guardiola’s side upped the intensity after the break and piled the pressure on their rock-bottom opponents.
The hosts came into the game having conceded a whopping 82 goals in their 35 Premier League games this season, but they looked impressively solid here. Even with City able to call on the returning Erling Haaland up front, Kevin De Bruyne, who is hoping to end his City career on a high, and the likes of Jérémy Doku, Omar Marmoush and Savinho from the bench, they could not find a way through. Southampton recorded just their third clean sheet of the season.
There was even a very brief spell when Southampton looked like they might nick a win. That small red peak in Opta’s above momentum graphic highlights just how much that came against the run of play.
Late on, Marmoush struck the crossbar, but in all, Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale will have been delighted to have been relatively untested.
Southampton, finally, have something to celebrate this season.
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Southampton Battle to Goalless Draw With Man City to Avoid Becoming Worst Premier League Team Ever Opta Analyst.
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