Man City 4 Southampton 1; Season over for Rodriguez

Article by e-Southampton Correspondent Samuel Wilkes

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Southampton suffered their biggest away defeat of the season as Man City maintained their title challenge with a 4-1 win.

The game was overshadowed by an injury to Jay Rodriguez which has now been revealed as ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments. The injury rules the 24-year old out for the rest of the season and the World Cup in June.

Things didn’t start well for Southampton who gave an unexpected start to Paolo Gazzaniga due to usual ‘keeper Artur Boruc suffering a back problem prior to the game. It was a worrying omen for the travelling fans. In his 5.5 starts prior to Saturday’s lunchtime kickoff, he had conceded 13 goals, he had the lowest save percentage of any of the 36 goalies who had featured in the Premier League this year and this was not the team against which to try and buck that trend.

Unfortunately it was the usually reliable Jose Fonte who gifted City their first goal, bizarrely trying a reverse kick at Edin Dzeko which the striker duly fell over after just two minutes. Yaya Toure dispatched the penalty with usual confidence.

In an evenly contested first half of few chances, the injury to Rodriguez was as innocuous as the consequences were devastating. In the 25th minute, J-Rod jumped high to control before landing awkwardly on his right knee and immediately the player, fans and staff knew that something was wrong. As medical staff brought on the stretcher, his teammates gathered round in support. The implications hit the stricken player and he left in tears to a standing ovation from both sets of fans, clearly aware at the severity of the injury which has sadly now been proven correct. ACL surgery requires a minimum of six months on the sidelines so getting back to fitness towards October is the goal for Jay now.

If the blow felt cruel, the away team did their best to dedicate a historic win to their fallen comrade and pulled a goal back after Lambert maintained his 100% penalty record for Saints, smashing the ball past Joe Hart after Jack Cork had been brought down by Pablo Zabaleta. It was Lambert’s 31st penalty for Southampton, 16 behind Matt Le Tissier’s 47 from 48 (a 97.9% success rate). With stats like that, Lambert is looking ever more likely to be joining Lallana on the plane to Brazil.

Man City were in no mood to be charitable and again took the lead in first half stoppage time as a neat move ended with Samir Nasri finishing well. The fact that David Silva had been 5 yards offside in the build-up but was not spotted by the linesman only added to the feeling that this was not to be Saint’s day. That feeling was compounded when Aleksandar Kolarov crossed for Dzeko to power a header past Gazzaniga.

The second half failed to live up to the incident packed first half and Southampton struggled to break-down their opponents. A mixture of poor defending and poorer goalkeeping allowed substitute Stevan Jovetic to tap home with his first touch after coming on with 10 minutes to go.

After the game, the players rallied to support Rodriguez whilst Mauricio Pochettino gave his first English interview to accuse the linesman of killing the game with the poor decision for City’s second goal. He is no doubt correct that it was a ridiculous decision but that wasn’t the reason Saints failed to win.

Manuel Pellegrini has moulded his side into an attacking machine and they still have Aguero to return. When the four opposition goalscorers cost a combined £98.8 million and your striker cost £1 million from Bristol Rovers of League One, you have to just be proud of your team for giving it their all.

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