Manchester City bounced back from last weekend's defeat at Stamford Bridge by utterly annihilating Norwich City. It was barely even a football match as the hosts ran rampant, putting the Canaries to the sword and establishing an insurmountable lead with less than half an hour gone. From then on it was a procession, and Manuel Pellegrini's men eventually put seven goals past the embattled visitors.
Manchester City vs. Norwich City: Final score 7-0, Canaries annihilated at the Etihad
How do you recover from a close loss to Chelsea? By beating Norwich City 7-0.
Ben Hoskins
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Norwich were on the back foot from the start, but it took a stroke of good fortune for Manchester City to break the deadlock. David Silva was allowed too much time in the box to bring down a pass, but Russell Martin managed to block his shot before the ball bounced into Bradley Johnson and trickled over the line.
Four minutes later, the hosts had another. Sergio Aguero bombed forwards, pinning the Norwich centre backs deep in their own box before laying the ball back for Silva to sweep past John Ruddy and make it 2-0. Then Matija Nastasic got in on the act by nodding a corner in off Jonathan Howson.
The Canaries were never going to be able to mount a coherent response to going 3-0 down so early at the Etihad, and the only reason anyone kept watching was to see how many Manchester City would eventually put past them. Alvaro Negredo made it four after good work from Aguero, and in the second half Yaya Toure swept in a delicious free kick before Aguero finally got his name on the scoresheet with a deft finish. Edin Dzeko completed the rout with five minutes go, turning and shooting from 16 yards to make it 7-0.
Norwich might want to consider doing something more than spectating in their next match.
Manchester City (4-2-2-2): Costel Pantilimon; Gael Clichy, Matija Nastasic, Martin Demichelis, Pablo Zabaleta; Fernandinho, Yaya Toure; Samir Nasri (James Milner 71'), David Silva (Jesus Navas 73'); Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo (Edin Dzeko 45').
Goals: Johnson og 16’, Silva 20’, Nastasic 25’, Negredo 36’, Toure 60’, Aguero 71’, Dzeko 86’.
Norwich City (4-5-1): John Ruddy; Martin Olsson, Sebastien Bassong, Michael Turner, Russell Martin; Anthony Pilkington, Leroy Fer, Bradley Johnson, Jonathon Howson, Steven Whattaker (Josh Murphy 45'); Gary Hooper (Johan Elmander 45').
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