This should have served as the ideal warm-up for Manchester City ahead of their FA Cup final date with Crystal Palace at Wembley next Saturday.
A trip to bottom-of-the-table Southampton, already relegated and with just 11 points to their name all season at kick-off, had the feel of a procession in the making but turned into anything as City found themselves going home frustrated following a goalless draw.
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The consequences may not be severe, with City still in control of their destiny in terms of Champions League qualification for next season, but there was no disguising their exasperation on the south coast as a host of half-chances were squandered.
We analyse the major talking points.
A missed chance in top-five battle
Manchester City had racked up an aggregate scoreline of 44-1 in an unbeaten run of 29 games (W24 D5) against teams starting the day at the bottom of the table before this one.
Southampton had the motivation of playing to finally ensure they would not equal Derby County’s Premier League record low points total of 11 from the 2007-08 season but this was a game City were expected to win, and do so comfortably. They arrived having won four league games in a row for the first time all season, and another in Southampton would have made it their first consecutive away victories since beating Chelsea and West Ham back in August.
Third-placed City peppered Southampton’s goal towards the end of the game but this was a missed opportunity to go level with Arsenal on points in second place before their Sunday trip to newly-crowned champions Liverpool, and leaves them in a fight for a top-five finish with two games remaining at home against Bournemouth and away to Fulham.
Newcastle or Chelsea would leapfrog them with a win when those two meet at St James’ Park in Sunday’s early game while Nottingham Forest could move within a point if they beat relegated visitors Leicester a couple of hours later.
Pep Guardiola now has food for cup-final thought (Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images)
City will still be confident of finishing the season in those Champions League spots but would have wanted to continue their recent winning momentum heading into Wembley.
Manager Pep Guardiola made changes to the team, with full-backs Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly being swapped for Rico Lewis and Manuel Akanji. Omar Marmoush, Ilkay Gundogan and Jeremy Doku all began this one on the bench, too.
The struggle to create will have given Guardiola food for thought on who makes his FA Cup final line-up.
How did Haaland fare on his return?
The Norwegian was in the City starting XI for the first time since March 30, when he sustained an ankle injury in the FA Cup quarter-final win away to Bournemouth.
It is clearly a boost for Guardiola and company to have their top goalscorer back in time for the FA Cup final next weekend, but the first half here was a struggle with City only producing one shot on target despite having 73 per cent possession. Southampton were barely able to get out of their defensive third but City were endlessly circulating possession around the edge of the hosts’ penalty area, unable to find an opening.
Haaland barely being involved in games like this, when the opposition are camped so deep, is nothing new but he was unable to find the shooting chances that usually bring him to life.
Erling Haaland returned to City’s starting line-up (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
In his seven-game absence, City had scored 14 goals via 10 players. Kevin De Bruyne started three games as a false-nine, including the two most recent wins against Wolves and Aston Villa, with Marmoush starting as a more conventional centre-forward twice and a change of shape seeing the Egyptian partner Phil Foden at the top of a diamond against Manchester United last month.
Haaland provides City with a focal point and a target to aim for but by the hour mark here had only touched the ball eight times. It was in that minute that he got his first sniff of a chance as Foden’s free kick was whipped across goal but his outstretched leg could not connect with the ball. Minutes later, City had their first clear breakaway but Doku’s square pass was behind Haaland and Southampton were able to smother, which saw the big striker throw himself into the net in frustration.
He was just as irritated with 15 minutes remaining when, having finally got behind Southampton’s defence, his cutback was missed by team-mates in the middle.
It summed up his day, and City’s.
Doku’s dribbling makes a difference
Guardiola’s decision to swap James McAtee for Doku at half-time was a signal for a change of tactics by City.
They started without any natural wingers in the team, McAtee and Foden playing either side of De Bruyne as the attacking trio behind Haaland. Without anyone capable of driving past a player, the first half was dominated by inswinging crosses, with Josko Gvardiol looking to sneak in at the back post, but Southampton looked content to defend these situations with so many bodies in the box.
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Doku has produced more complete performances in recent weeks and his directness changed the dynamic of City’s attack. Prior to this trip to the south coast, the Belgian has completed more dribbles than any other player in the Premier League this season (102), and had the highest dribble success rate of anyone to attempt at least 60 take-ons (61.5 per cent).
He added to those numbers in his 45-minute spell with more of his direct dribbling, and created one of the best chances in the 64th minute when he beat James Bree down the outside on the City left and cut the ball back to Bernardo Silva, but the ensuing shot was cleared over the crossbar en route to goal.
Jeremy Doku was lively after coming on (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
He should have done better on that one counter-attack when he failed to find Haaland but Doku added a dynamism and unpredictability to City’s attacking play.
Fearful of his acceleration, Southampton’s defenders started to be drawn towards him which, allied to the fact left-back Gvardiol was now tucking in rather than providing the width on the outside, gave City more bodies inside to quickly move the ball to and take advantage of the space Doku’s decoy role can provide.
What next for City?
Saturday, May 17: Crystal Palace, FA Cup final (Wembley), 4.30pm UK, 11.30am ET
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
