In the wake of Southampton’s defeat at the Etihad last night, many fans have been reacting to what was ultimately a disappointing end to an encouraging display.
The 3-1 loss wasn’t quite the thrashing that many fans were expecting, leading to some praising the Saints for their performance level against Pep’s record-breaking City side.
The away side rallied well late on after going into half time 2-0 down, and the late fightback gave some fans hope that all is not lost ahead of Saturday afternoon’s return to Manchester:
Our #CarabaoCup campaign comes to an end at the last-16 stage. pic.twitter.com/77jH9hwRcO
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) October 29, 2019
Last 20 mins was much better but the game was long gone. McCarthy and Danso need to start. Roll on Saturday…
— Myles Bowman (@myles_cb) October 29, 2019
I’ll take that!
— Lee Fielder (@leebrianfielder) October 29, 2019
Others were less optimistic, fearing that a full-strength City side won’t be so remorseful:
Just warming up for the weekend… pic.twitter.com/TL7u8gM5ty
— Southampton Page (@SouthamptonPage) October 29, 2019
We’ve lured them into a false sense of security here guys so should be an easy win for us on Saturday ?
— Rob (@rjcSFC) October 29, 2019
We are all aware Man City were playing a B team? And this was supposed to be a positive reaction? Could say Man City had given up in the last 20 and I always thought football was about winning not saying we played better. We’ve just been knocked out the cup!!
— martin siddy (@MartinSiddy) October 29, 2019
What we think
In our opinion, some positives can most certainly be drawn from the game. For starters, the final 20 minutes were a vast improvement on anything the side has shown of late. Further, the defensive performance of Jack Stephens was notable for all the right reasons, as is proved by his 7.1 WhoScored rating, as well as his goal. While it is most certainly true that City will likely be a different animal on the weekend, yesterday’s trip could act as a vital catalyst for better things to come, as the way they ended the game was certainly encouraging.