It was deja-vu all over again for Manchester City as the Barclays Premier League champions opened their title defence with a thrilling 3-2 victory over newly-promoted Southampton.
Not only was the score exactly the same as that never-to-be-forgotten final home game against QPR last season, so was the scoring sequence, and even the ends they went in at the Etihad Stadium. The major difference was that this time, City did not wait until injury-time before responding to falling behind.
Edin Dzeko was the man who equalised again though, before Samir Nasri fired home the winner 10 minutes from time. It was tough on Southampton, who stuck doggedly to their task, but paid the price for only holding their lead for four minutes as Rickie Lambert and Steve Davis responded to Carlos Tevez's first-half opener.
Source: PA
