England international Theo Walcott made his return to the Southampton squad for the Premier League clash with defending champions Manchester City at home last weekend. Walcott featured in the Saints team for the first time in 2022 against the Citizens having recovered from Covid-19. He had not been involved in the Southampton squad since the start of the year on the back on him testing positive for Covid-19.Theo Walcott started the visit of Manchester City on Saturday evening on the bench.
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Southampton were given a dream start when former Tottenham Hotspur fullback Kyle Walker-Peters gave them the lead inside the first ten minutes with the outside of his right foot. Manchester City dominated proceedings from the blast of the whistle only for Southampton score to score from their first major foray into the Manchester City box. The goal from Walker-Peters came in the seventh minute after he was teed up by compatriot Nathan Redmond on the right side of the Saints attack. It was the first Southampton goal for the English right-back specialist.The stunning strike from Walker-Peters gave the Saints a slim lead over Manchester City at the break.
Manchester City fought their way back into the contest in the second half when their pressure on the Saints goal paid off from a setpiece delivered by Kevin De Bruyne and scored by French-born Spanish international Aymeric Laporte.
Southampton were able to keep City at bay for the remainder of the game on the back of the Laporte equaliser. Laporte was on the end of a bad challenge from Scotland international midfielder Stuart Armstrong in the second half and he might have been sent off on another day.
For Theo Walcott, he was on the Southampton bench for the whole game as the South Coast club stopped the run of 12 straight league wins for the Citizens.