“It’s frustrating to play against a team like them,” Manchester City center-back Ruben Dias lamented after the 0-0 tie with Southampton, who have already been relegated.
“They don’t even attempt to play, just wasting time throughout the match. It seems like they don’t want to engage in the game or win it. They are merely biding their time. Despite our efforts and having opportunities, we couldn’t score. That’s the reality of it.”
A glance at the stats might lead some to agree with Dias, but others might see the 27-year-old’s remarks as merely the complaints of a player frustrated by his team’s struggles to create clear scoring opportunities against a now former Premier League champion at St Mary’s.
City had 26 shots on goal on the south coast but just five of those required a save from Aaron Ramsdale. Interestingly, none of those efforts were deemed to be a ‘big chance’ by the statistic gurus who govern the modern game, suggesting the 573 accurate passes from Pep Guardiola’s side weren’t all that impressive.
Southampton, who are swiftly returning to the Championship after just a single year back in the top flight, decided they wouldn’t be irked by Dias’ comments, rather they would take the very 2025 approach of mocking the Portuguese on TikTok.
A montage of City overhitting a number of crosses was edited into a short video, following on from Dias’ rather unwise post-match interview rant, and was accompanied by the caption: “Guess neither of us wanted to play.”
You have to say, it’s incredible work from an official club account.
“They [Southampton] can do whatever they want,” Pep Guardiola remarked in his own post-match comments when informed of Dias’ frustration.
“You have to break it and we had the chances. When you review the chances, we could not score and it happened. Now we prepare the final and now it is next time and Fulham.
“We did not concede one shot on target and they didn’t do much, but we have to accept the way they play, it belongs to Simon [Rusk] and his assistant coaches. I don’t agree with Ruben, we have to accept it.”
For Southampton, the point was a rare bright spot of what’s been a desperately disappointing season. The other piece of good news for the Saints was that they can no longer join Derby County as the Premier League’s lowest-ever points scorers – their 12th, courtesy of a sixth draw of the season in addition to two home wins, enough to scrape past the Rams’ infamous 11-point haul during 2007/08.
