Pep Guardiola’s men dominated possession in the first 45 minutes, but despite plenty of probing in the attacking third, we could not find a way through the rigid and organised Southampton defence.
Jeremy Doku was introduced at the interval and almost made a swift impact, driving down the left flank and cutting the ball back for Bernardo Silva, but his goalbound effort was cleared by Jack Stephens.
With 20 minutes left to play, Kevin De Bruyne’s corner was met by the leaping Manuel Akanji, who directed his header towards the bottom left corner, but Saints’ goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale sprawled down to palm the ball away.
The shot-stopper was called into action again in quick succession with five minutes left of normal time, firstly reaching up well to tip over a looping Ruben Dias header, before gathering De Bruyne’s driven strike from distance.
With the clock ticking into stoppage time, substitute Omar Marmoush crashed a superb strike onto the crossbar, but the hosts remained resolute to survive the pressure and claim a point at St Mary’s Stadium.
The point takes us up to 65 points and ensures we will remain in the top five until the next round of fixtures, as our quest to qualify for next year’s Champions League continues.
View the best images from the encounter via our gallery below.
