Two goals in first-half stoppage time have put Manchester City 3-1 up at home to Southampton this afternoon.
The away side recovered well after an early Yaya Toure spot kick, but were undone by two goals on the stroke of half time after losing Jay Rodriguez to a serious knee injury.
City enjoyed a near-perfect start, taking the lead three minutes in after Edin Dzeko had gone down under challenge from Jose Fonte and Toure dispatched the resulting penalty.
They almost doubled their lead moments later but Samir Nasri failed to hit the target after good work from Pablo Zabaleta.
After that Southampton got themselves more and more involved. First Rickie Lambert's floated pass just evaded Adam Lallana, before the striker himself curled just wide from the edge of the box.
In between all of that Rodriguez was stretchered off and taken to hospital after falling awkwardly, meaning that his World Cup chances could be over.
Then, just as City were starting to dominate, the visitors drew themselves level with a penalty of their own. Zabaleta produced a poor challenge on Jack Cork and Lambert made no mistake from the spot.
The game swung Southampton's way after that with a period of pressure and a series of crosses into the box before City turned the game back on its head in the final minutes of the half.
Nasri made up for his early miss by finishing a City move before Dzeko headed in from an Aleksandar Kolarov cross with the last action of the half.
Daniel Cross
