Late Raheem Sterling show saves Manchester City again to see off stubborn Southampton

Manchester City 2 Southampton 1: For the third game in a row Sterling popped up with a winning goal just when it seemed City had come unstuck

Oriol Romeu celebrates his fired equalising goal at the Etihad (Getty)

For the third straight match,Raheem Sterling snatched victory at the death for Manchester City. It will surprise nobody they will be champions – no team in the Premier League has accumulated 40 points so quickly – but the finish demonstrated why.

There were five minutes of stoppage time for Southampton to have clung on to a point which their organisation and Fraser Forster’s goalkeeping had deserved. One winner had already been ruled out for a foul by Fernandinho when the ball came out to Sterling on the edge of the area with the whistle almost to the referee’s lips. Sterling had won the Champions League fixture with Feyenoord late on and he had snatched victory at Huddersfield on Sunday. Now, he curled a beautiful, unsaveable shot into the top corner of Forster’s net. This Sunday will see the first anniversary of the last time City lost a game of football in front of their own supporters.

Their manager’s customary cool disappeared with Sterling’s winner. Pep Guardiola punched the air and marched on the pitch to hug his players and, for reasons best known to himself, confront Nathan Redmond.

Romeu slams the equaliser home under pressure from Sterling (Getty)

Despite the result, Southampton had played one of the best games of their season. Before the interval they had two clear opportunities to snatch the lead and had squandered both. That you imagined might be that but it was the leaders who paid for not taking their chances when Soufiane Boufal pulled the ball back for Oriol Romeu, who shot past Ederson.

At the Nou CampPellegrino had shared a dressing room with Guardiola for a season, which had seen Barcelona win La Liga by 11 points – the kind of gap you imagine Manchester City might have opened up come May.

He knew his opponent and made five changes for this match, saying his his team would have to run a lot more than they did in their last game, the 4-1 demolition of Everton. These appeared to be the kind of defeatist tactics adopted by managers of middling clubs coming to Old Trafford when Manchester United were in their pomp – they were bound to lose so it might be as well to rest players for the more winnable game to come.

Gabriel Jesus sees Fraser Forster save his effort (Getty)

That would be to do Southampton a considerable disservice. They had fought out a 1-1 draw here last season and as Wesley Hoedt’s header from Ryan Bertrand’s flicked-on corner clanged against the crossbar, they were inches from taking the lead.

The Dutchman was standing less than six yards out, marked by Kyle Walker, and you wondered if Southampton would have a better chance. Just after the half-hour mark, they got one. It was another corner and this time Maya Yoshida, standing roughly where Hoedt had been, stabbed his shot over.

Southampton were organised, disciplined and kept City in check as well as any of their supporters who had made the daunting late November drive from Hampshire to Manchester might have hoped. It still meant the Premier League leaders might have scored two or three before the interval.

Pep Guardiola marshals his team from the touchline (Getty)

While the electronic screens above him flashed out a series of daunting statistics about Manchester City’s season, Fraser Forster celebrated his 100th league appearance for Southampton by saving with his gloves from Fernandinho and his legs from Gabriel Jesus. Ilkay Gundogan's shot sliced into the side-netting while Nicolas Otamendi headed into the crowd. His saves from De Bruyne and Jesus after the interval were even better.

One of the scary stats displayed as the teams walked off was that this season Manchester City had scored more second-half goals (27) than 18 clubs had in both halves. It took 91 seconds for that to become 28. Van Dijk and Otamendi stuck out muscular legs to meet a free-kick from De Bruyne, who was at the centre of most of Manchester City’s best work and the Dutchman’s connected before the Argentine’s, although De Bruyne was given the goal. Most of those who had paid vast sums for the fine-dining football experience called The Tunnel Club had yet to take their plushly upholstered seats for the restart. They all saw Sterling’s winner.

Manchester City: (4-3-3) Ederson; Walker, Kompany, Otamendi, Delph; De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Gundogan (B.Silva 80); Sterling, Aguero, Jesus (D.Silva 74). Substitutes: Bravo (g), Danilo, Mangala, Zinchenko, Diaz.

Southampton: (5-3-2) Forster; Soares (McQueen 87), Yoshida, Van Dijk, Hoedt, Bertrand; Hojbjerg (Boufal 64), Romeu, Lemina; Redmond, Long (Austin 83). Substitutes: McCarthy (g), Davis, Tadic, Gabbiadini.

Referee: Paul Tierney