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Norwich City v Manchester City
Carrow Road, Norwich

Saturday 8 February 2014
Kickoff: 1500 GMT

Referee: Jonathan Moss
Assistants: D England & S Bennett
Fourth Official: Darren Drysdale

TV Coverage in UK: No LIVE Coverage
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Need a strong response after the defeat at home against Chelsea and what better team to play against then Norwich next. Two seasons ago we beat them 5-1 at home and 6-1 away ... then last season both games were 'interesting' for different reasons. Away we won 4-3 in a thriller which saw us go 2 goals up within 4 minutes and then saw Nasri being sent off within the first half itself but we came away with all 3 points despite going down to ten men ... and then the reverse fixture was the last game of the season, post Mancini, a 3-2 loss ...

Roll on to this season, and these were the opponents we dished out that 7-0 lesson to, back in November ... don't think we are the team they most look forward to seeing and not that they'll just be remembering that 7-0 drubbing but they'll also know we are injured (from our loss on Monday) so will be raring to put things back on track ...

All the above is great, but no easy fixtures in the league though ... and then this is an away game anyway.

Team Selection

Our injuries remain an issue and Pelligrini will have a hard time deciding who can play with whom in the formation (4-4-2) that he'd most probably stick to ... Hart in goal and maybe Yaya in the midfield are the only two I can think of as sure starters, and of course the captain fantastic but that's about it ...

Every one is rested, after all this was the first mid-week that we had off since that November international break, so I think tiredness won't be Pelligrini's concern ... but this fixture also marks the start of another 5-games-in-15-days stretch which will include Chelsea in FA Cup and the Barca first-leg so maybe he might give some consideration to that ...

Starting XI Prediction

Hart
Zaba - Komps - Demi - Clichy
Milner - Yaya - Rodwell - Silva
Jovetic
Dzeko

Score Prediction

Norwich City 1 - 5 Manchester City

Jovetic to shine, and us on the whole to have a little too much spring in them to fix what broke down last game, I expect a full fledged authoritative reaction.

If the beast if 100% fit which he wasn't on Monday, I would like him to get some reasonable amount of time in this match to get his match fitness levels ready for the big boys visiting shortly

tc6828 wrote:If the beast if 100% fit which he wasn't on Monday, I would like him to get some reasonable amount of time in this match to get his match fitness levels ready for the big boys visiting shortly

Jojo to start, give him 60 minutes this time, take him off after his hat trick and give the Beast time to score a couple to add to Edin's brace, job's a good 'un.

As we are now well into February I am expecting big things from Stevan.

our midfield is a mess right now. i dont even know who id like to see in there..just not Marty

Any match going blues aware of a pub thats good for us CITY fans?

phips wrote:our midfield is a mess right now. i dont even know who id like to see in there..just not Marty

Milner should be fit now so he can come in and play with Navas, Yaya and Silva.

I don't expect Pellegrini to divert from playing 2 forwards, so most likely Negredo/Dzeko if fit, but this could be a good opportunity to give Jovetic a start. He's looked promising in his cameo appearances lately and we need to get him playing regularly with the squad.

*Edit

Also to add that with our defence all over the place yet again, we really need to give Kompany-Lescott a run of games. I don't expect that to happen but it's our best chance of forming a solid centre-back partnership with our current options. If not Lescott, then Demichelis, whilst not ideal, is probably our next best option. Nastasic should be nowhere near the squad.

aaron bond wrote:<null>

Also to add that with our defence all over the place yet again, we really need to give Kompany-Lescott a run of games. I don't expect that to happen but it's our best chance of forming a solid centre-back partnership with our current options. If not Lescott, then Demichelis, whilst not ideal, is probably our next best option. Nastasic should be nowhere near the squad.

Could not agree more. Rotation is fine but we need to establish a '1st team back four,' something we have not had all season.

I'm slightly worried about team selection for this one. With the Champs League around the corner I can see MP selecting
Hart
Richards Kompany Lescott Clichy
Yaya Demichelis
Milner Negredo Jovetic
Dzeko.
I expect Zaba and Silva to be rested as they have both had minor knocks recently. It's not a bad side at all but I think the creativity of Silva and Nasri is crucial to us. Hopefully Jojo will provide that and I thought he was our MOM on Monday albeit from off the bench.I sometimes think MP does not realise that the teams in the bottom half of the Prem are not shit like they are in Spain.

South Stand Balti wrote:I'm slightly worried about team selection for this one. With the Champs League around the corner I can see MP selecting
Hart
Richards Kompany Lescott Clichy
Yaya Demichelis
Milner Negredo Jovetic
Dzeko.

I guess id be okay with that lineup

mcfc1632 wrote:Any match going blues aware of a pub thats good for us CITY fans?

Go for the compleat angler near the railway station by the river.

Didn't realise all three Chelsea, Arse and us play today ... we'll know how Arse fare against Liverpool first up and then we'll know we have a chance of going top or if Arsenal wins first that'll add a little pressure on us I guess ...