Man City players have point to prove to Pep Guardiola at Southampton

Manchester City's blips this season have been few and far between, thankfully for Pep Guardiola.

Come the end of the Premier League campaign, should City not catch Arsenal, Guardiola will likely look back to the start of 2023 as a deciding factor as to why they did not. The year started well enough for the Blues with back-to-back victories against Chelsea.

Those wins against Graham Potter's side though showed little in the way of a warning for what was lurking around the corner for the Blues. As Guardiola sort to rotate his team in the Carabao Cup, City became unstuck.

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A 2-0 defeat at Southampton took many by surprise. Even for an arguably second-string XI, City's performance was noticeably flat.

Stefan Ortega's error for Moussa Djenepo's goal summed up a truly torrid evening and led to the Blues' stars feeling the wrath of Guardiola in the media. "The best team won," he declared post-match.

"They were better. We didn't play well. We had a bad start and we didn't perform good. Today was not even close to what we are.

"We were not prepared to play in this competition to get to the semi-finals. We were not ready.

"You have to be prepared for every single game when you play for Manchester City and today we were not. If we perform this way (in the Manchester derby) we do not have a chance.

"I have the feeling today the line-up doesn't matter, the performance happens. We were not here."

Unfortunately, Guardiola's prediction would become a reality as defeat to Manchester United three days later capped a poor week. City have since had to work hard to regain the approval of their manager and in recent weeks they have been in stunning form during season-defining