NORWICH CITY 0, MANCHESTER CITY 0
A goalless draw away at Norwich City, the same result that Manchester City suffered on their last visit to East Anglia two years ago, saw their lack of penetration punished as the Canaries fought for an unexpected point in their battle against relegation.
City have still not won back to back league games since October last year but boss Manuel Pellegrini has refused to believe City’s title challenge is slipping away even though this side was only missing Yaya Toure from the side that thrashed Aston Villa 4-0 at home last week.
He said: “It’s not over while mathematics suggest that you can do it but I think it’s important to be focused on the next game to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League.
“After that in every game of the Premier League we must try to finish as near to the top of the league as we can.
“Maybe in other games we have had problems in defending. Today we didn’t allow them to create chances but we couldn’t do what we normally do in attack.”
So poor were City after a bright start that they failed to test Norwich ‘keeper John Ruddy in the second half and can they count themselves lucky that Nicolas Otamendi’s mistake to allow Patrick Bamford a shot on goal.
The talented youngster, playing up front, saw his effort hit the crossbar instead in Norwich’s closest effort.
Ruddy did earn his corn in a first half that should have seen a City side missing only Yaya Toure from the side that thrashed Aston Villa at home last weekend open the scoring through chances by Sergio Aguero and Wilfried Bony, with a world class one handed save by Ruddy denying the Argentine hitman.
City will now be looking over their shoulders at West Ham and rivals Manchester United who will sense a chance to snatch a Champions League fourth place finish if City continue to falter.