MANCHESTER CITY KEPT up the pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool with a 4-1 win at home to Southampton in Saturday’s early kick-of match.
Victory saw City close to within a point of Liverpool with a game in hand and leapfrog Chelsea into second place.
But Chelsea, who’ve also played one game more than City, will go a point clear at the top if they beat Stoke at Stamford Bridge later today. Liverpool are away to West Ham tomorrow.
The opening four goals at Eastlands all came in the first half with City’s Yaya Toure and Saints’ Rickie Lambert both scoring from the penalty spot before Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko scored in stoppage-time to make it 3-1 to Manuel Pellegrini’s men.
City substitute Stevan Jovetic completed the scoring nine minutes from time. Toure gave City a third minute lead from the penalty spot after Jose Fonte brought down Dzeko.
Worse followed for Southampton when their England striker Jay Rodriguez, with national manager Roy Hodgson watching from the stands, landed badly after jumping to control the ball and clutched his knee in agony before being carried off on a stretcher.
Rodriguez’s injury placed a huge question mark over whether he would be fit in time to be included in Hodgson’s squad for this year’s World Cup finals in Brazil, which starts in June.
Despite losing Rodriguez, Southampton equalised when they too scored a penalty, in the 37th minute, when Lambert, another of the south coast side’s England forwards, struck from the spot after Jack Cork went down between Toure and Pablo Zabaleta.
But two City goals in first-half stoppage time put the result beyond doubt.
Nasri rounded off a neat passing move although Southampton were convinced David Silva, who played in the French midfielder, was offside when he received the ball. But referee Chris Foy let the goal stand.
Minutes later City were 3-1 ahead when Dzeko headed in an Aleksandar Kolarov cross missed by Saints goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
Jovetic made it 4-1 in the 81st minute when, after both City’s Alvaro Negredo and Gazzaniga, in for the injured Artur Boruc, had missed Jesus Navas’s low cross, he tapped in from close range.
Saturday’s other matches see Manchester United, buoyed by their midweek Champions League draw with Bayern Munich, away to struggling Newcastle while bottom of the table Fulham travel to Aston Villa.
Everton and Arsenal, fifth and fourth respectively before the weekend, clash at Goodison Park on Sunday.
