Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Premier League game between Southampton and Manchester City

Milner tries to get to a throughball, but he 'keeper is out quickly to claim. That's a relief for Southampton, as they are trying not to concede, as a rule of thumb.

Southampton dominate possession. They don't do anything with it, that would be a bit gauche.

We've kicked off! There was a sense of inevitability about that.

Five minutes to go, so I'm going to do a prediction now. I'm predicting City to win 2-0 and have no trouble at all in doing so.

If you would like to get in touch throughout the game, you can do so here @lxndrnthrtn, on Twitter. Twitter is magnificent and edifying.

Manchester City would almost be favourites in a game like this, but have an even greater advantage today because of injuries to eight of the first team. Vincent Kompany is also back in the side, which is a defensive boost - but Martin Demichelis is playing, which is a defensive nightmare.

Pellegrini controversially believes that it is important to continue winning. Also on the Pellegrini list of challenging opinions: chips are nice, steak is tasty and the sun is hot.

Manuel Pellegrini: "It was an important game (3-2 victory over West Brom) for us, winning the three points away. I think the fight for the Premier League is exactly the same. There are eight or nine teams that are very close in points. For us, it is very important to continue winning. But we have five more games to complete the first half (of the season) and then we have all the second half."

TEAMS: Southampton: Gazzaniga, Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, Shaw, Cork, S. Davis, Ward-Prowse, Lallana, Rodriguez, Osvaldo. Subs: Cropper, Yoshida, Lambert, Ramírez, Hooiveld, Reed, Gallagher. /// Manchester City: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov, Milner, Yaya Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Aguero, Negredo. Subs: Hart, Navas, Lescott, Clichy, Richards, Dzeko, Garcia

Pochettino wilfully using the word 'project' to describe a football club is why Manchester City go into this match on the moral high ground. It's true that they are suffering from an injury crisis, though, and I'll put up the team news as soon as I have it.

Mauricio Pochettino: "Injuries are the worst aspect of football. We've been unlucky, but we have to stay strong. These things can happen, so we have to keep believing in ourselves. Our project is to mix young players with experiences ones, so this gives us a good opportunity to do that."