The Premier League is always known for fierce competition and fast-paced confrontation, compared to the Ligue 1 (Paris), Bundesliga (Bayern), La Liga (Real Madrid), the premier league champion is always not the last few rounds are not known, this season's Manchester City in the first half of the ride, it seems to have the momentum of ending the championship suspense in advance, but the 23rd round of the Premier League, Southampton home vs Manchester City, and let the suspense of the championship return again.
As City's top scorer Mahrez returned home to compete for the Africa Cup of Nations, Guardiola lost one of his most consistent scorers up front. Mahrez has scored 13 goals in all competitions this season and delivered five assists, making him the only player in the team to score in double-figures, which shows his important tactical position. His absence also made Manchester City play quite difficult, just 7 minutes into the opening, Southampton knocked the mountain, Peters sent a scalpel-like straight plug on the right side, and then Raymond went down to the bottom of the triangle to return the pass, Peters inserted into the box in time to complete the outside foot catapult, the score became 1-0.
Southampton's goal was a one-shot success, turning Manchester City's midfield and backline defences around. However, Manchester City is not easy to mess with, and the Blue Moon Army, which is behind the score, launched a fierce counterattack. In the 27th minute, Canceló suddenly applied a cold arrow outside the box, the ball was high above the crossbar; in the 35th minute, the B seat sent a subtle straight plug, the inserted Sterling left and right swing after the inside cut shot slightly offside, 3 minutes Manchester City ushered in the best scoring opportunity of the first half, Foden forced a bottom cross after the breakthrough on the left side, Sterling in front of the goal faced a close mid-air goal opportunity, but directly into the arms of the goalkeeper, once again staged a happy football, Manchester City also had no chance to equalize.
After half-time, City's attack did not diminish, and Although Southampton was leading by the score, it could only be passively beaten. Rhodri's volley in the 48th minute was quite pleasant, but was unfortunately turned away by the goalkeeper. It was Still Rodri in the 59th minute when his out-of-the-box shot bounced off the crossbar. Finally, in the 65th minute, Manchester City scored. De Bruyne drove a set-piece on the right side of the field, and his arcing ball was quick and accurate to find Laporte in front of the box, who rushed to the top and the goalkeeper could not save, and the score was fixed at 1-1.
Then Manchester City had a chance to kill the game, but unfortunately De Bruyne and Jesus' shots hit the upright, and in the 78th minute De Bruyne was brought down in the penalty area, but unfortunately, after VAR determined to be at the front of the penalty area, Manchester City also missed the penalty opportunity, and finally the two sides shook hands 1-1. As a giant with a total value of 990 million euros, Manchester City got 74% of the possession in the whole game, and created 22 shooting opportunities, but only gained 1 point, Southampton miraculously ended Manchester City's 12-game winning streak, breaking out of the big cold, this result also made Guardiola quite dissatisfied, it can be seen that Mahrez's absence has a great impact on Manchester City's ability to finish.
After this battle, Manchester City led Liverpool by 9 points in the case of one more game, considering that Liverpool's supplementary match was at home against the weaker Leeds United, so it was not a big problem to score 3 points, so in the case of the same number of games, Manchester City's double-digit lead will shrink to 6 points, and in the case of more than 10 rounds of the league, the suspense of winning the championship will be rekindled, not to mention that the two teams will stage a direct dialogue in the 32nd round, and the battle between the two teams will not win until then. So for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, they still have hope of turning the tables and snatching the heaviest Premier League title of the season from Manchester City.