Ilkay Gundogan believes that Southampton’s humiliation last week has just made Manchester City’s week a lot tougher.
The Saints suffered a 9-0 home defeat by Leicester on Friday night, setting an unwanted new record scoreline for the English top flight.
Their players have donated their week’s wages to charity as a show of remorse, but Blues midfielder Gundogan thinks their real payback to their fans will begin at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.
The last thing the Premier League strugglers needed was probably two trips to play the champions in the space of four days, beginning with tomorrow night’s Carabao Cup fourth round tie.
But Gundogan thinks there will be a backlash in that game, and in the Premier League visit on Saturday.
“I watched the second half and they were one man down, so obviously the result was fake, a little bit,” said Gundogan, who scored in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa at the weekend.
“They might not be full of confidence, so they might be defending very deep and with a lot of passion and aggression. So we need to be prepared, as we play them a couple of times.”
“The first one is a final so we need to go through to the next round.
“It won’t be easy, especially because of their last result. They will want to prove they are not a bad team, so it will be even more difficult.
“But with our quality we are targeting two wins. That’s possible and we have to show it.”
