Phil Foden should get an opportunity here after being pushed out of the squad by Rayan Cherki, who has developed throughout the season to take Foden’s spot in the starting eleven. It may be the case that Foden has to leave City to reach the levels we’ve seen from him previously, but he should get an opportunity here to make an impact.

Foden hasn’t been that poor this term when looking over his general numbers. He’s registered 10 goal contributions across 21 starts in the Premier League this term, seven of which have been goals - only Haaland (24) and Semenyo (15) have scored more Premier League goals than Foden for Manchester City this season. He’s achieved this tally from 51 shots overall (2.51 per 90), seeing 17 of these efforts find the target (0.84 per 90).

Southampton were brilliant in their 2-1 win over Arsenal in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, but crucially did concede 23 shots and seven shots on target. I think they will make this an awkward test at times for Guardiola’s side, but there is still the obvious quality gap between the sides which exists between the Championship and the Premier League.

Shea Charles scored the winner against Arsenal to secure Southampton’s passage to the semi finals of the FA Cup. He’s a talented player, and may be ready for Premier League level, but we’re focusing on his tenacious side here which may be important for the Saints if they are to spring a surprise in this clash.

Charles committed two fouls and was shown a yellow card against Bristol City last time out. He’s committed 31 fouls across his 19 starts in the Championship across the season as a whole (1.46 per 90), which is a rate that we can expect to rise given the higher level of opposition that Charles will be lining up against here. Charles didn’t start in Southampton’s 2-1 win over Arsenal in the quarter finals, but came on to commit a foul in the 14 minutes he was on the pitch.

He’ll have quite a few players to try and stop here with the number of rotations City put together in central areas but his main opponent is likely to be Phil Foden. Foden has won 27 fouls across his 21 starts in the Premier League this season (1.33 per 90), so can offer a threat to Charles and Downes in the middle of the park for Southampton - both of whom are likely to have to get through quite a bit of work at Wembley on Saturday evening. 

This won’t look as easy as it does on paper for Manchester City, Southampton are on an incredible run of form which has seen them avoid defeat since 17th January - a run that spans 20 games, and includes victories over the likes of Fulham and Arsenal in the FA Cup.

The praise for this run has to go to Tonda Eckert, who took over from Will Still after a promising interim period. He’s an excellent coach and has got Southampton playing with real confidence, they won’t just sit back and wait for City to try and break them down - they’ll offer a threat to Guardiola’s side, and to Donnarumma or Trafford.

I think Guardiola may opt for Trafford here given that the English keeper started in the EFL Cup final against Arsenal recently. Trafford made four stops in that game, including a few crucial ones early on in the final which allowed City to stay in the game and eventually take control of the second half. 

Trafford has started four games in the FA Cup so far this season, keeping two clean sheets and being forced into making 10 stops across these matches (2.50 per 90).

I always like taking this line when it’s priced like this, you won’t usually get more than 1.17 for a team to pick up a single card, especially in a semi-final. I’m mainly taking this angle for the tactical fouls that I think will come into play from City when Southampton look to break and catch out Guardiola’s side.

Southampton have drawn a card from their Premier League opponents in each of the last two rounds of the FA Cup, drawing two yellow cards from Fulham and one in the dying stages of their game against Arsenal. One of the cautions against Fulham came from Jorge Cuenca stopping a counter attack, so there is already a bit of a precedent for Southampton to draw at least one card from Manchester City here.

The referee for this game is Craig Pawson, who can be stingy with his cards at times, but the situations we’re hoping will develop here should be pretty blatant for Pawson to reach into his pocket at least once for a City player. Pawson is averaging 2.42 cards per game across his various appointments in the Premier League this season. 

This is a big opportunity for Phil Foden ahead of what could be a decisive end of the season for his chances of being included in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad. He’s been phased out a little by the emergence of Rayan Cherki, but should start here as Guardiola attempts to manage the fitness of his star players.

Foden has still been scoring this season, only Semenyo (15) and Haaland (24) have scored more goals for City in the Premier League this season than Foden (7). Guardiola clearly sees him as a player to play just off the striker, 

which is slightly different from the general expectation of England fans - who profiled Foden as a creative player who could dictate play. 

It may be the case that Foden’s best position is as this second striker, which is where he played when he won PL POTY with only Haaland scoring more goals than Foden for City that season. Foden has scored 13 goals across all competitions this term, which isn’t a terrible return for a player that hasn’t been as trusted by Guardiola as he has been in previous campaigns. 

Only Flynn Downes (12) has picked up more yellow cards in the Championship for Southampton this season than James Bree (9). He’ll have the unfortunate assignment of having to mark Doku here, which Mosquera found out last week was a tough challenge - bringing down the City man twice within the first minute, and going on to pick up a yellow card for his constant harassment of the Belgian.

That’s really the only way to deal with Doku, he’s near impossible to stop when he slows things down and then bursts away, so you’d expect Bree to be in situations where he has to drag down Doku to limit the damage that the winger can do to Southampton. Bree has committed 38 fouls across his 35 starts in the Championship this season (1.14 per 90), so he has a pretty consistent foul record to accompany his promising card count this term.

Bree also likes to get forward pretty often, registering nine goal contributions across his 35 starts in the Championship this term. This could end up harming the Saints as there are likely to be situations where Bree is caught high up the pitch and is forced to make a clumsy challenge to stop City putting together a counter attack. 

Leo Scienza is such a fun player to watch, and could have that extra bit of quality that Southampton will need here if they are to cause a big upset. Scienza was very unlucky not to find the back of the net in Southampton’s clash with Arsenal in the last sound, striking the crossbar with his only effort of the game.

He arrives at Wembley in good form having registered a goal contribution in three of his last five matches, taking his total tally for the campaign to 17 goal contributions across just 28 starts in the Championship. He’s taken 77 shots across these games (3.10 per 90), seeing 36 of these attempts find the target (1.45 per 90). These are the best and most consistent shot metrics of any Southampton player this season.

Scienza should benefit from the space that Manchester City tend to leave in their fullback areas, Guardiola allows both fullbacks to be bold and advance up the pitch which should leave space for Scienza and others to drive forward with the ball and get shots away which can test Trafford who is expected to start in goal for City here.