The defending champs host the winless Saints at the Etihad. The omens don't look good for struggling Southampton today as they take on title-chasing Man City at Etihad Stadium. The leaky Saints have failed to keep a clean sheet in any match so far this season, having shipped three goals in each of their last three games. City struggled to break down relegation candidates Wolves last weekend, with the defending champs claiming a last-gasp 2-1 away win thanks to a John Stones header. Today's match nevertheless looks on paper like a rout for Pep Guardiola's side as they look to keep pace with EPL leaders Liverpool.
Manchester City take on Southampton on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Etihad Stadium, with kickoff set for 3 p.m. BST local time, making it a 10 a.m. ET or 7 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada and a 1 a.m. AEDT kickoff in Australia in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the match as it happens, wherever you are in the world.
Where to watch Manchester City vs. Southampton
Saturday's Manchester City vs. Southampton match is streaming on Peacock. You'll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live. Peacock offers two Premium plans, and after the recent price increases, the ad-supported Premium plan costs $8 a month and the ad-free Premium Plus plan is $14 a month.
How to watch Man City vs. Southampton from anywhere
If you find yourself unable to view EPL matches locally, you may need a different way to watch the games -- that's where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it's also a great idea if you're traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you're able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors' Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you're streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. It's normally $13 a month, but if you sign up for an annual subscription for $100 you'll get three months free and save 49%. That's the equivalent of $6.67 a month with code SPECIALDEAL, which should be automatically applied.
Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Where to watch Man City vs. Southampton in the UK
That also means that if you're in the UK traveling for pleasure or for work, you're unlikely to be able to watch the game like you normally would at home, thanks to geoblocking.
There's one option to get around this, however. By using a VPN, as explained above, you can set your location to a country where the match is being broadcast and go from there.
Where to watch Man City vs. Southampton in Canada
If you want to stream this EPL game live in Canada, you'll need to subscribe to Fubo Canada. The service has exclusive rights to every Premier League fixture once again this season. Fubo is the go-to destination for Canadians looking to watch the EPL this season, with exclusive streaming rights to every match. It costs CA$30 per month, though you can save some cash by paying quarterly or annually.
Where to watch Man City vs. Southampton in Australia
Football fans down under can watch EPL matches live on streaming service Optus Sport, which is showing every single Premier League fixture of the 2024-25 season live in Australia. With exclusive rights to stream all EPL matches live this season, as well as German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga games, streaming service Optus Sport is a particularly big draw for Aussie soccer fans.
If you're already an Optus network customer, you can bag Optus Sport for a reduced price, with discounts bringing the price down to as low as AU$7 per month. If you're not, a standalone monthly subscription to the service starts at AU$25.
Manchester City vs. Southampton: Team news and preview
Returning to the line-up are Ederson, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol. Stefan Ortega Moreno, John Stones, Nathan Ake and Ilkay Gundogan all drop to the bench.
CITY XI: Ederson, Lewis, Gvardiol, Dias (C), Akanji, Kovacic, Bernardo, Nunes, Foden, Savinho, Haaland
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Stones, Ake, Gundogan, O’Reilly, McAtee
SOUTHAMPTON XI: Ramsdale, Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens (C), Downes, Manning, Lallana, Fernandes, Dibling, Archer
Subs: McCarthy, Aribo, Armstrong, Bree, Sugawara, Sulemana, Cornet, Ugochukwu, Onuachu
Ederson will have Rico Lewis and Gvardiol as his right-back and left-back respectively this afternoon, with Manuel Akanji partnering skipper Dias in central defence.
Kovacic will anchor a three-man midfield that will probably include Bernardo and Phil Foden.
Up front, we are likely to see Matheus Nunes and Savinho on either flank with Erling Haaland down the middle.
On paper, that’s 4-3-3 - on the pitch, it’s likely to look anything but!
Pep Guardiola has said Matheus Nunes deserves to play more than he has been doing. The Portuguese found it hard to force his way into the side last season, with his appearances few and far between - and often brief. Such are the demands on new players coming into this City side, it can often take a year before we get to see the very best of them. So far this campaign, we have seen a much more confident and dynamic Nunes who has impressed whenever he has played. He has also now got a couple of goals and three assists under his belt, too. Named in the starting XI today, the former Wolves star has the chance to back up perhaps his best performance in sky blue yet against Sparta Prague on Wednesday evening. Clearly a popular member of the squad, this could be the real start of Nunes’ Manchester City era.
Southampton arrive at the Etihad in deep trouble with eight games played. Just one point from a possible 24 and a -12 goal difference is not the start manager Russell Martin would have envisaged. To his credit, however, he has stuck with his possession-based style of play and, it should be said, won plaudits for doing so. Of course, there are few better teams at controlling possession than City, so the question leading up to this game has been whether Martin will cast aside the pass and press and focus on trying to keep the Blues at bay. It seems unlikely. The Southampton boss has been encouraged by spells in recent matches and though the league table never lies, it’s true that some of Saints’ displays have perhaps merited more.
City will be mindful of last weekend, when we again faced a side at the foot of the table in Wolverhampton Wanderers. Gary O’Neil’s side were bright and bubbly and only a favourable late VAR decision - albeit correctly awarded - gave the Blues a narrow 2-1 success. Often, clubs with nothing to lose can be a danger with a top versus bottom contest considered by many as a ‘free hit’. How Saints approach this game will become evident very quickly, but City will not be underestimating the visitors no matter what tactics they adopt this afternoon.
Manchester City vs. Southampton: Key stats
● Since losing three consecutive Premier League home games against Southampton between 2001 and 2004, City are unbeaten in their last 12 against them at the Etihad Stadium (W10 D2).
● Southampton have won just one of their last 14 Premier League meetings with City (D3 L10), picking up a 1-0 home win in July 2020.
● City are on their longest ever unbeaten league run, going 31 Premier League games without defeat since losing to Aston Villa last December (W25 D6). They’ve fallen behind 12 times in that run and come back to win 10 of those games (D2).
● Southampton have lost seven of their eight Premier League games this season, drawing the other against Ipswich in September. It’s just the second time the Saints have ever failed to win their opening eight matches of a league campaign, after 1998-99 (first 9).
● City have gained 13 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season, more than any other side. Indeed, it is the most points a team has earned from losing positions in the opening eight matches of a Premier League season ever.
● City had 85 touches in Wolves’ box in their 2-1 win last Sunday, the most by a team in a Premier League game this season and most by a team in an away game on record since 2008-09. Indeed, City’s total of 404 opposition box touches is the most by a team through their opening eight games of a season Opta has on record.
● No team has scored more goals from corners in the Premier League this season than City (3), while Southampton have shipped the joint most corner goals (5). In City’s last game, they won in the 90th minute via a corner, while in Southampton’s last game they lost in the 90th minute to a goal from a corner.
● Russell Martin has picked up just one point in his first eight Premier League matches as Southampton manager (D1 L7) – in Premier League history, only Mick McCarthy has ever won fewer points in his first eight games (zero).
● Erling Haaland has gone three Premier League games without a goal for City for just a second time, going four without one between December and February last season. He had just 13 touches against Wolves last time out, his fewest in a match in the top-five leagues in Europe when he has completed 90 minutes.
● Among players to play 500+ minutes against newly promoted teams, only Gianluca Vialli (one every 56 minutes) has a better minutes per goal ratio than City’s Erling Haaland (one every 60 mins, 13 goals in 780 minutes). He is looking to become the first player to score in seven starts in a row against promoted teams since Sergio Agüero in November 2017.
