Premier League preview: Norwich v Manchester City

A shock loss to Manchester United on Wednesday has given a glimmer of hope to Manchester City’s title hopes, ahead of their trip to Norwich.

United were beaten 1-0 by lowly Wigan, while Roberto Mancini’s side cleaned up West Bromwich Albion 4-0 at home to cut the gap at the top to five points.

While they must hope for more United defeats in the final five games of the season, City also need to focus on what they can control – their own game – as they prepare to tackle an in-form Norwich, who upset Tottenham at their last start.

City will be without striker Mario Balotelli who is serving a suspension, but their plethora of attacking options means the Italian bad boy will not be overly missed.

Norwich have been enjoying plenty of success in front of goal of late, with goals in each of their past four matches, which has earned them seven points.

Even more promising for the Carrow Road faithful is that their seven goals in that run have come from five different sources, with powerful striker Grant Holt producing three of them.

While the fixture represents little value for Norwich, the Citizens can cut the gap to two points – albeit with United having a game in hand – on Saturday in the Premier League title race, and all they can do is hope their rivals slip up again.

Norwich striker Anthony Pilkington is looking forward to the challenge.

“Manchester City need to come out and beat us to stand any chance of pushing for the championship, but we will carry on doing what we’re doing and take the Spurs win into Saturday and try to take three points off City as well,” he said.

“But this just proves to everyone we are more than a match for anyone in this league.”

Mancini maintains despite United’s loss to Wigan, Sir Alex Ferguson has all but two hands on the title, however do not take the Italian’s word as gospel, given his competitive tendencies.