Man City vs Southampton Prediction: 11/8 Haaland at the double

Southampton's start to life back in Premier League has been at best inauspicious and the Saints are now headed for the ultimate Halloween scare, a trip to the Etihad to face champions Manchester City.

Read on for my Man City vs Southampton prediction, featuring match odds and team news.

Football Odds

Russell Martin's side have gathered just a single point from eight games so far, scoring only six times.

Draws with Arsenal and Newcastle in September mean Pep Guardiola has City in second spot, a point behind leaders Liverpool, but by their own standards this really does constitute a fast start from the champions and it does not bode well for the teams looking to prevent a fifth successive title.

Team News

Guardiola could well make some surprise calls in terms of team selection here, though it seems improbable Haaland will be rotated after his midweek Champions League wonder strike ended a goal drought that lasted all of two games.

Oscar Bobb and Rodri are long-term absentees, while Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku are all doubts, the latter pair having missed the midweek hammering of Sparta.

Saints are missing keeper Gavin Bazunu and forward Ross Stewart, while Ryan Fraser is suspended after being sent off as they collapsed at home to Leicester last week.

Man City vs Southampton Odds

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City are overwhelming favourites to win at 1/10 and the scale of task in front of Southampton is represented in their price of 16/1 to win, while the draw is priced at 8/1.

City put five past Sparta Prague in midweek and over 4.5 goals here is a 6/4 chance, while both teams to score – something that has occurred in seven of City's eight Premier League games so far – is trading at 1/1.

Erling Haaland has two Premier League hat-tricks already this season and is 9/2 to complete another.

Man City to win both halves @ 5/6

This has all the makings of being a long afternoon for Southampton. They've conceded four goals in three of the last four meetings with City and the fact they've scored a meagre six goals in eight league games is worrying.

The champions have not kept a domestic clean sheet in eight attempts since the opening day win over Chelsea and that stat is bound to be grating on Guardiola, ever the perfectionist.

There are few better chances for a shutout than facing the sorry Saints and with 14 goals scored in four games recently, it isn't hard to anticipate City scoring in both halves.

Erling Haaland to score two or more goals @ 13/10

City didn't sign a back-up striker in the summer, a surprise to many onlookers when Julian Alvarez was allowed move to Atletico Madrid, and the result is that Haaland hasn't missed a minute of Premier League football, save for coming off in the 90th minute after scoring three against Ipswich in August.

He did get a late reprieve against Sparta, with Guardiola joking post-game that 'when Erling is not available John (Stones) can play as a striker' after the defender scored in back-to-back games.

At 24, the Norwegian is already level with Didier Drogba on 44 Champions League goals after his brace in midweek.

That was the fifth time this season, including a double for Norway against Slovenia, that Haaland has scored two or more in a single game and he may well do it again here.

Offers

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