Well lads, today Manchester City welcome those boys from Norfolk to our ground as we resume Premiership football after the midweek Carling Cup victory. City boss, Roberto Mancini rested several key players for that game and those along with Balotelli and Barry should be back after serving their suspensions midweek.
Manchester City will look on this as a chance to strengthen their grip on the top spot and with Manchester United the later kick off today at Villa it could certainly see City go 8 points clear of their neighbours. That said, Norwich City have proven to be anything but pushovers in this League.
Currently in the top ten and holding the highest position of all the newly promoted sides Norwich have already fought a few of the big boys already and, although they only have a point for their efforts the work on the pitch deserved more. Most recently they took the lead and then only just lost against Arsenal, got a draw at Liverpool and lost away to United 2-0. The most frustrating though had to be their trip to Stamford Bridge. City were holding Chelsea until their goalkeeper was sent off with ten minutes left on the clock, the eventual score flattering the Londoners 3-1.
HISTORY:
Manchester City have played Norwich 50 times in the League, winning just under half of them. In fact Norwich have only won 14% of the league games with us, and this year you have to say that the gap between the two has widened. That said they have, frustratingly, held us to draws on 19 occasions so it will not all be one way traffic.
Manchester City last played Norwich at home in the League on November 1st, 2004. That time out was one of the frustrating ones, Willo Flood scoring our goal in a 1-1 draw. The reverse fixture saw Sibierski score for us in a 3-2 win before moving to East Anglia only a few seasons later.
Joe Corrigan, Joe Royle, Asa Hartford, Daren Huckerby, Ched Evans and of course Antoine Sibierski are a few of a number of players to play for Norwich after City, whether it be on loan or a permanent deal. Danny Mills, Spencer Prior, John Deehan, Justin Fashanu and John and Kevin Bond all did the same but
in the opposite direction.
Norwich City have recently repeated what we did ten years ago with relegation to the third tire of English football before winning back to back promotions and finding themselves back in the Premier League. It also cannot be missed that in the week we also face Bayern Munich in the Champions League today we face the only English team to have beaten them in their own backyard. Another Manchester City link, Mark Bowen scored the winner.
Norwich also deserve the recently shredded 'Typical City' motto as in 1985 their jubilation of victory in the League Cup over Sunderland was overshadowed by both teams getting relegated. I think that may also be a record that Norwich have their name on.
City, us that is, have beaten our opponents by high scores on more than one occasion and today, if we play as we all know we can, it may be one to eclipse even the 5-0 win in 1964. There was that 6-0 win back in the 1981 FA Cup but lets not be greedy lads.
PRESENT DAY:
Manchester City are currently unbeaten in the Premier League and although they have scored in their last 19 straight Premier League matches, they have also conceded a goal in their last six. Danger points for City are that the visitors have scored the majority of their goals from crosses so Lescott, Kompany and whoever else is picked will have to bring their 'A' game and keep concentration when the ball is sprayed wide.
Predicted 11: Hart, Richards, Lescott, Kompany, Clichy, Toure(Y) Barry, Nasri, Silva, Balotelli and Dzeko.
Score: 5-1 City!
Written By: PA Cityboy(www.facebook.com/pacityboy)
No comments:
Post a Comment