Iheanacho’s brace fail to save Man City

Nigerian international Kelechi Iheanacho acored two goals in Manchester City 4-2 loss to Southampton at St. Mary's on Sunday.

Sadio Mane grabbed a hat-trick as Southampton hammered Manchester City.

Two goals in the space of three first-half minutes from Shane Long (25 minutes) and Sadio Mane (28) set Southampton on their way to a convincing win.

Iheanacho scored before the break to give City hope of a second-half revival. But it never came and Mane had completed a classy hat-trick before Iheanacho, City's only positive, hit a superb second of his own from the edge of the box.

It was a much-changed City team with Wednesday night's Champions League semi-final second leg in mind, but a less than ideal preparation and a calamitous defensive display.

A terrible day all round. City were flaky in defence, lacklustre in midfield and - other than Iheanacho's two moments of class - blunt in attack.

Pellegrini made eight changes with to rest players for Wednesday but the likes of Fabian Delph, who had a wasteful 63 minutes before being replaced by Jesus Navas, and Raheem Sterling, did little to convince the manager that they should be part of his frontline plans for the Champions League return against Real Madrid.

Neither Wilfried Bony and Aleks Kolarov are exactly fan favourites but neither enhanced reputations with their critics.

United's draw against Leicester means City's place in the top four isn't in real danger though a 4-2 pasting is hardly the ideal warm-up for a trip to the Bernabeu.