Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Eliaquim Mangala (hamstring) has joined fellow centre-half Vincent Kompany on Manchester City’s injury list.
With Nicolas Otamendi and Martin Demichelis City’s only fit centre-backs, Bacary Sagna may have to play centrally in the coming weeks.
New Norwich signing Ivo Pinto will not be risked in defence having just arrived at the club.
Kyle Lafferty is in the Canaries squad, despite being linked with a move to Leeds United in the transfer window.
Editor’s Note: Manchester City tasted cup defeat on Wednesday in the Capital One Cup and will be hoping that there isn’t more of the same this Afternoon as they make the visit to Carrow Road.
Manuel Pellegrini’s issues at Centre Back have worsened with Eliaquim Mangala now ruled out so he will have to go with the Argentine pairing of Nicolas Otamendi and Martin Demichilis today and pray that neither of them get injured either. The duo didn’t have the best 45 minutes against Everton with Demichils at fault for Everton’s Winner so Norwich will be looking to take advantage of the situation.
Another question is whether Sergio Aguero will start today in a bid to get up to full fitness, he played the full 90 minutes on Wednesday against Everton but still lacked a bit of sharpness in my opinion so maybe Pellegrini will use today as an opportunity to give Ageruo some more game time.
Norwich are fresh off the back of 2 league wins in a row with both of them coming at Carrow Road and Alex Neil will be hoping that form can carry over to the cup. The wins did come against Aston Villa and Southampton so will no doubt be more of a test but when the two sides met in the league at The Etihad they were only bested by a last minute goal so Alex Neil may fancy his chances today.
New singing Ivo Pinto doesn’t feature today but may make his debut in Midweek. I think City will look to bounce back from Wednesday’s defeat and will have enough to dispose of Norwich later today. An away win for me
