Manchester City ease past Southampton in Carabao Cup fourth round

Manchester City cruised past Southampton 3-1 in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

The Saints, who suffered an historic 9-0 loss to Leicester in the Premier League last week, managed to keep the score down this time but failed to threaten the defending champions at the Emirates.

Defender Nicolas Otamendi got the hosts off and running after 20 minutes when he jumped over his marker to head home Bernardo Silva's cross following a corner kick.

Sergio Aguero doubled the lead in the 38th with a comfortable volley to cap off a swift City move from left to right -- the Argentina international sweeping home a drilled-in cross from Kyle Walker.

Aguero scored his second after the break when Riyad Mahrez's stinging shot from outside of the box deflected into his path to poke in past a helpless Alex McCarthy in goal.

Southampton showed some life in the 75th minute through Jack Stephens, who got a head to a James Ward-Prowse cross in the middle of the box, but it was little consolation as Pep Guardiola's men easily moved into the quarterfinals.

After the match, Guardiola said he was pleased with his much-changed side's complete performance against the struggling Saints.

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"This competition is good to move the team and we play seriously," he said. "Our quality of the pass was high, we arrived in the final third with quality, quicker. It's not easy, attack that system with eight players back and fast players up front, but generally it was a good game other than the last minutes.

"We go through, quarterfinals, Thursday is the draw."

Among the rarely seen faces getting minutes Tuesday were defender Eric García, midfielder Tommy Doyle and forward Adrian Bernabe.

"Eric once again played in a high level [and] played like he played with us all the time. He played so good defensively, offensively. He didn't make one mistake," Guardiola said. "Tommy played so good for a first game in a position that is not natural for him. I saw him playing there for a few days when normally he plays in front but he played really good. Congratulations for his debut. 

"Bernabe, he's a guy with a guarantee of a lot of quality, good character. I'm so sorry to Ian-Carlo [Ian Poveda-Ocampo] because he wanted to play as well, but after 3-1 the game was not over and that's why we didn't make the substitution and after with what happened with Angelino."

In the other matches, Everton slightly relieved the pressure on manager Marco Silva with a 2-0 home victory over Watford in the night's other all-Premier League clash.

The hosts hit the woodwork twice before Mason Holgate headed in a Theo Walcott cross in the 72nd minute and Richarlison broke clear to scored the second in the final minute.

Leicester also made nine changes and raced to a 2-0 lead in 20 minutes at third-tier Burton Albion with goals from Kelechi Iheanacho and Youri Tielemans.

Liam Boyce pulled one back early in the second half but James Maddison restored Leicester's two goal-lead in the 89th.

Colchester United came from behind to win 3-1 at Crawley Town in an all-fourth-tier match, while Oxford United beat Sunderland on penalties after a 1-1 draw between the third-tier sides to reach the final eight for the first time since 1987.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.