MAN CITY v Norwich: The PREVIEW – City’s Probable Team

After the joy of defeating Arsenal to reach the semi-finals of the Carling Cup, focus returns to the Premier League and the visit of newly-promoted Norwich. It’s a superb opportunity to maintain, or possibly even extend, our lead at the top of the table, but by no means should we underestimate the visitors. Lead by the astute Paul Lambert, the Canaries have impressed all this season with their style of football and currently lie in mid table. We have to avoid complacency as they are more than good enough to make us pay.

It promises to be entertaining affair as City have scored in the past nineteen Premier League games but have also conceded in the last six. That latter stat will be of great annoyance to Roberto Mancini and his perfectionist ways, and I’m sure he will have drilled the defence hard this week, knowing that Norwich have scored 47% of their goals this season from crosses. If we can stop the supply coming in from the wings, it ought to be a relatively comfortable afternoon.

The side which started against Arsenal in midweek was much changed, so I’d expect Roberto Mancini to revert to something like his strongest eleven. However, with the vital Champions League clash on Tuesday at home to Bayern Munich, there may be the temptation to rest a couple of key stars.

Aleks Kolarov is doubtful with injury so Gael Clichy will return to left-back, whilst Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta are battling it out on the other side of defence. James Milner, Gareth Barry and Yaya Touré were all rested for the trip to London and could all return, though Nigel De Jong is also in the mix. David Silva is a definite starter, possibly alongside Mario Balotelli and Sergio Aguero.

Here is the side Mancini could select:

As stated above, Norwich have exceeded expectations so far this season and in Steve Morison and Grant Holt, they have a supremely physical front pairing. We struggled against the aerial ability of QPR recently, so this could be another challenging afternoon for our defence. Anthony Pilkington is another to have impressed so far and the former Stockport County man will have to be watched closely.

Referee: Howard Webb – Has officiated only one other City game so far this campaign, which was the hard-fought 2-0 home victory over Everton.

Prediction: MAN CITY 3 – 1 Norwich – It could be quite an open affair but that should suit City. Norwich certainly won’t go down without a fight, so it promises to be a very watchable 90 minutes. Goals to be scored by Edin Dzeko, David Silva, Adam Johnson and Grant Holt.

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