Pep: Haaland ‘ready’ for return against Southampton

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland is “ready” to return for their Premier League game at Southampton on Saturday.

Haaland missed last weekend’s 4-1 home win over Liverpool with a groin injury, but the 22-year-old returned to training earlier this week and Guardiola confirmed his availability for the trip to St Mary’s Stadium.

“Erling trained the last two days, really good,” the Spaniard said. “He will be ready.”

And Guardiola said he was not giving any thought to managing Haaland’s minutes ahead of next week’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich.

“Bayern Munich is the last thought,” he added. “It’s Southampton. The Premier League is every day, every week.”

Haaland has scored 42 goals in 37 games in all competitions this season for City, including six hat-tricks, while the Norwegian also leads the Premier League Golden Boot race on 28 goals, six ahead of Tottenham’s Harry Kane.

Saturday’s match at St Mary’s is an opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal before the league leaders head to Anfield on Sunday, but even with the Saints bottom of the league, Guardiola said he and City would not underestimate the challenge.

“Now every team is playing for something, it’s the same important fight for the Premier League,” he said. “Every game has its own characteristics and you have to be ready, Southampton have always been so tough.

“Since the year we got 100 points in the 94th minute, the game we won they were much better than us. Always it’s been a tough, tough game. Tomorrow won’t be an exception.”