EPL Scores & Highlights 2014: Manchester City Defeats Southampton 3-0

By Edwin Molina First Posted: Nov 30, 2014 04:24 PM EST

Defending English Premier League (EPL) Champions Manchester City showed experience and grit defeating Cinderella darling Southampton 3-0 on Sunday.

After losing Luke Shaw to Manchester United, Adam Lallana to Liverpool and Calum Chambers to Arsenal at the start of the season, many expected Southampton to falter after a solid eighth-place finish during the 2013-2014 EPL season.

But with the help of new additions Graziano Pelle from Feyenoord of the Netherland's Eredivisie league, Dusan Tadic from FC Twente of the Eredivisie and Shane Long from Hull City, the Saints are off to a surprising second-place start in the 2014-2015 EPL season.

The game was scoreless in the first half with Southampton playing tentative against the defending EPL champions but Yaya Toure broke the game open for Manchester City after rocketing Sergio Aguero's pass past Southampton keeper Fraser Forster in the 51st minute of the match to make the score 1-0.

Eliaquim Mangala would end up eating second yellow card for the game in the 74th minutes after a rough challenge on Long, putting Man City a man down.

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But turnovers would cost the Saints any chance of a comeback. Frank Lampard, on loan from NYCFC, came off the bench in the 65th minute and extended Manchester City's lead in the 80th minute after Southampton turned the ball over in the midfield, leading to a Manchester City fast-break that ended with Lampard blasting James Milner's pass past Forester to put Man City up 2-0.

Manchester City would run away with the game after Southampton turned the ball on a corner kick late in the game, which turned into another fast-break for Man City and ended with Aguero earning his second assist serving up the pass to Gael Clichy in the 89th minute to finish the game 3-0.

"You know that if you do some mistakes you are punished for that. It was not good enough and we have to realize that," said Southampton head coach Ronald Koeman, whose team slides down to third place in the standings. "The difference was the quality. Chelsea and Manchester City are the two strongest teams in the Premier League and you have to be good. If you are not at your best and make some mistakes then they will punish you."

With the win, their third EPL victory in row, Manchester City moves up to second place and have their eyes set on Chelsea, who is unbeaten in their 20 matches of any competition. Chelsea is atop the league with 33 points while Manchester is six points behind the leaders. Man City coach Manuel Pellegrini refuses to concede to Chelsea as his team looks for their third championship in four years.

"We have to play 25 games more. It is a lot of points and nobody knows what will happen in the future," said Pellegrini. "In football in one week you can change your position. Chelsea are playing very well and we will see what will happen."

In the other EPL match played on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur managed to earn a victory over Everton. The Spurs had to come from behind after Everton's Kevin Mirallas hit the top right corner nailing a shot from outside the box in the 15th minute to put the Toffees up 1-0. But Christian Eriksen would tie the game up for Tottenham six minutes later, putting in Harry Kane's shot into the net after the ball ricocheted off Tim Howard's hand after his initial save.

Roberto Soldado, who has had a disappointing season despite the team spending big bucks on transfer fees for the former Valencia player, would earn the game-winner in the first minute of stoppage time in the first half after putting Aaron Lennon's pass past Howard for the 2-1 win. Soldado, who had not scored since September, broke a 627 minutes scoreless drought with the goal.

"You need to give [Soldado] confidence and strikers get frustrated when they don't score," said Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino. "Today he had an opportunity to score and he scored. And happy for him and I'm happy for the team because in the end the victory was very important.