What can be said in this Preview, Manchester City are a team that rarely lose at home or for that matter away and Saints are a team that at the moment struggle on the road, of they also have potentially the greatest striker in Premier League history, what's not to be positive about !!!

Once upon a time Manchester City were not a team to be feared, indeed on our first visit to the Etihad Stadium we won 4-1 and back in those days we had a good record against what were then the second team in Manchester.

But that was then and this is now, in the past decade or so City have had their fortunes turned around by the fortunes invested in them by Arab Sheiks and since then the Premier league has become more polarised with every year that goes by and the chances of anyone outside the Big Six clubs getting into the Top 6 League positions or for that matter winning anything diminishes by the year.

If you don't believe me go and look at the list of Premier league top 6 finishes over the past 6 years and who has won the domestic cups since the Premier League started, it does not make happy viewing unless you are the type of fan who chooses their club by how much money they have rather than because it is your local team.

Manchester City at one time where a team that claimed that they were from the city of Manchester, at Manchester United ruled the roost, their fans boasted they were the team of the people and derided Manchester United fans as glory grabbers, they would never be like those who worshipped at Old Trafford they claimed.

That soon changed after the first camel had arrived in town, tea towels were worn on the head and now the Manchester City fan mark 2, is not much different than the average United fan other than most of them do live in Manchester.

So, most club's look at the fixture at the Etihad as a free hit, it is like waiting outside the head masters room for the cane (Younger readers ask your Dad's or Grandad's) you know you are going to get a good thrashing, so you just go in and get it over with and hope that it doesn't hurt too much, but it is still going to hurt.

This season is even worse as we go there on the back of an awful run of 3 defeats and we go there with a team that if you believe rumour and it is just rumour, has a dressing room in turmoil and a manager whom the players hate.

So what are our chances of a win at the Etihad, slightly lower than Ralph Hasenhuttl's odds to be the next Premier League manager to be sacked I would suggest.

Truth is if Manchester City e mailed us to suggest because of the train strikes we concede the game with a 5-0 win to City, if it went to the vote, probably 99.9% of Saints fans would vote to accept, probably a similar percentage in the Saints squad as well and for that matter take out the Big Six and the rest of the Premier League would have the same result.

It fact it is getting to the stage where perhaps City have bought their squad so well, that the rest of us should all get a default 5-0 defeat before the game and just be able to put out a reserve team and then we could all enjoy the silky skills of Erling Haaland as he bids to become the greatest striker in Premier League history and perhaps the first striker to score 40 top flight goals since Jimmy Greaves in 1961.

Aside from Greaves himself in the last 61 years the only player who has got near that was our own Ron Davies in 1966/67

With 14 goals in his first 8 games, there are few that would bet against that at present.

So we go with little hope, but in truth this game in terms of defending might suit us far more than our last three outings, we have a team built to sit back and go on the break, or perhaps on Saturday just sit back, we are no longer the defence of a 2 to 3 years ago that leaked goals, no one would argue that it is perfect just yet, but when we suffered those bad defeats of a few years ago, truth is no one in the team on those occasions would get into our defence now.

So like most teams we go to the Etihad hoping for a City off day and that we won't get walloped, such is the state of English Football at the moment, truth is when City and others wanted to join a European Super League we should have cast them adrift from the Premier League, but they weren't willing to do that, they wanted their cake and eat it, they wanted the riches of the premier League and the European Super League, it was just pure greed.

Your average City fan these days will read this and claim that it is just envy, not even a small chance of that, I like many others just want to see their team play in a League that is competitive and not dominated by the teams that have mega rich benefactors.

A lack of competition will ultimately spell the death of the Premier League in it's current form, it is a busted flush, it needs a complete overhaul, I hope that the European Super League has not gone away, I hope it rears it's ugly head and the Big Six scuttle off to it and leave the rest of us in peace, if not then i hope that in a reverse takeover sort of way, as the Premier league formed from an initial number of breakaway clubs from the Football League, that the 12 or so clubs like us resign from the Premier League and leave the Big clubs and those with delusions of grandeur to it and make the Football league and with it English football competitive again.

As for the team and match on Saturday, who cares, we all just hope that when 5pm comes on Saturday that we have put in a gutsy performance and not collapsed such is the Premier League in 2022/23.

To end on a bright note, we did get a draw last season both home and away, perhaps we can go one better this season.

Photo: Action Images

Consigliere added 11:10 - Oct 7 There is so much good sense in this article. I don’t want Saints to go down obviously but I really enjoyed us playing in the Championship, we saw many fewer overseas players dominating the results, there were more games to watch and we won more of them. All in all a very competitive home league. The money washing through the “big” clubs will eventually kill the PL. All empires have the seeds of their own destruction and this is no different.

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felly1 added 11:32 - Oct 7 Two nil Saints win. Adam Armstrong gets both goals.
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bartley41 added 12:03 - Oct 7 Thank you Nick, a very good article. Football is no longer the game that I first watched in the late 1940's. It's sheer greed and no longer a level playing field, such a shame but that's life today!
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Ali_Diarea added 12:19 - Oct 7 The PL should bring in a handicap system based on revenue/wealth of owners. If we started the game with a five nil headstart it would make it much more exciting for all concerned!
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WestSussexSaint added 13:21 - Oct 7 Ali Diarea - Never going to happen and anyway Saints would still lose 6-5 under your plan! That said I’m with felly on this one. Things are so bad and with the board lining up to sack Ralph I fully expect him to pull the rabbit out of the hat and get a Saints win. However I think it will be 1-0. I’m not that deluded 😂
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highfield49 added 15:48 - Oct 7 If nothing else it would be good to see the likes of Ballard and Dibling in the squad. All those who have been given many opportunities, and failed, might as well have a rest and spend the day doing shooting practice. I remain unconvinced by the Super League proposal. The likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona are close to bankruptcy and several of the Italian, French and German clubs would be complaining because Man City bought their way to the trophy every season. Not that I care because I support Southampton and always will but let's be honest, our problem is that we're not beating the likes of Villa, Wolves and Everton never mind the top clubs.

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halftimeorange added 16:37 - Oct 7 Perhaps the answer is that clubs are not allowed to spend more than a set amount on new players which all of them in the EPL can afford in any one season - a spending ceiling. It would take a few seasons but, ultimately might level things out. I know it won't happen but, the only other answer would be a fans boycott of the EPL. It wouldn't be much fun cheering your team to victory every week if there were no opposing fans.

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SanMarco added 19:32 - Oct 7 Get rid of the loan system and player stockpiling + away side gets half gate money + tv money handed out evenly + global maximum salaries + ban sovereign wealth. As for the game, I may regret saying this but I wouldn't accept the pre-kick-off 5-0 offer. I'm sure we will lose but I fancy something nearer 3-1.
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Ifonly added 19:48 - Oct 7 Another thing that's changed over the years is that in the old days you used to be able to have a go at the top teams by putting in a few "juicy" tackles. You can't do that any more. Brush past them and they go to ground and you're booked. I have mixed feelings about this. I do think it's for the good of the game. You see much more skill these days because the skillful players don't get kicked off the park. But at the same time, I do miss the old blood and thunder. The atmosphere in the Dell when the players got stuck in used to be fantastic.

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