Manchester City vs Southampton: Reigning Champs Will Destroy Newly-Promoted Club

Defending Premier League champions Manchester City will dominate newly-promoted side Southampton in both clubs' season opener at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

City has not allowed a goal in four of its last five league openers, and against a club with little top-flight experience, the champions will likely start the season with another strong defensive performance.

In its first Premier League match since the 2004-05 season, Southampton will attempt to become the first team in over a year to defeat City at the Etihad in a league match.

This will be very difficult to accomplish, however, since City's attack has way too much skill and pace for Southampton to defend well for 90 minutes. Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli, Edin Zdeko and David Silva will not have a tough time creating quality goal scoring opportunities against the Saints defense.

The champions allowed only 29 goals last season, which was the fewest in the Premier League. They also scored the most goals. Their challenge of repeating these two impressive accomplishments will get off to a good start against a Southampton squad that doesn't have the goal scoring threats to bother the City defense or goalkeeper Joe Hart.

The best hope for the Saints is to score an early go-ahead goal and then sit back and defend.

Southampton's away record last season was 10-6-7, which was the worst of any promoted side from the Championship. Going into a hostile atmosphere such as the Etihad against a world-class squad will be very intimidating for the Saints.

It will be a great test for them, as many of the club's players will earn valuable Premier League experience against the best team in England.

City knows that its title defense must start with a win on Sunday because every point is crucial—last year's title race was decided on the goal-difference tiebreaker.

Southampton will be looking to prove its worth against an elite opponent, so even though the match will likely be an easy one for the champions, that doesn't mean they can make foolish mistakes and not give 100 percent effort.

Manchester City will open its new league campaign under a lot of pressure to repeat as champion—something it has never done.

This challenge will get off to a great start against an overmatched Southampton team on Sunday.

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