Norwich v Manchester City: team news, free tips, odds & match preview

Football tips, best bets and analysis for Norwich v Manchester City in the Premier League.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Premier League, 5.30pm Saturday

Best bets

Manchester City to win & both teams to score
2pts 5-4 Betfred
Back this tip with bet365
Under 10.5 corners
1pt Evs SkyBet
Back this tip with Paddy Power

Team news

Norwich
Christoph Zimmerman and Tom Trybull, injured against West Ham, are out. Timm Klose and Onel Hernandez were already absent while Max Aarons looks a major doubt.

Manchester City
Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane are out until next year. Benjamin Mendy, John Stones and Gabriel Jesus are back in training.

Match preview

The Premier League’s three top goalscorers are on duty at Carrow Road in a game featuring two sides who simply breathe goals.

The layers have chalked up 1-4 about Norwich v Manchester City featuring three goals or more while an away win is, in their eyes, even more inevitable with the champions around the 1-6 mark.

Norwich optimists might want to get with their side but it’s hard to believe this contest will be anything other than one-sided with the visitors winning well.

Norwich came up from the Sky Bet Championship shipping goals in unhealthy numbers and nothing has changed.

They have yet to keep a clean sheet – indeed they haven’t recorded one in 11 games in all competitions – and have let in a league-high ten goals in their four matches to date.

In contrast, City are already the division’s top scorers with 14, eight of which have been racked up in away days at West Ham and Bournemouth.

This just screams a comfortable Citizens win, especially with Daniel Farke not even being able to summon his best defenders thanks to injuries to Christoph Zimmerman and Timm Klose.

A Manchester City win and over 4.5 goals is odds-on while Pep Guardiola’s men and both teams to score is perhaps a more attractive 5-4 chance.

The tools at Guardiola’s disposal barely need introducing any more. Sergio Aguero tops the league’s scoring charts already with six and has found the net in each of his last five Premier League games. Raheem Sterling is on the five-goal mark and has netted in six of his last seven outings for City and England.

With Kevin De Bruyne on his game and a glittering supporting cast, the visitors should bombard the home goal and expose a porous defence.

Farke may try to take a more defensive approach but it wouldn't mean they are capable of keeping the champions out. Eddie Howe, whose natural instinct is to attack, has tried any number of different approaches against City with Bournemouth yet none have worked.

And the strength of Farke’s side is up front anyway and the support which the likes of Todd Cantwell, the sublime Emiliano Buendia and others give to five-goal Teemu Pukki.

It won’t be lost on Farke that Guardiola has his own defensive conundrum to solve with Aymeric Laporte sidelined. The Spaniard seems to have precious little faith in John Stones which probably means a back two of Nicolas Otamendi and Fernandinho, hardly a disaster but far from ideal.

A goal feast doesn’t always mean the corner count goes skyward. Norwich, for example, average four corners per game at home while Guardiola's gang have given up only eight all season. The visitors have won only six in two away games and backing a low tally could pay.

Key stat

Norwich and Man City head the goals-per-game table with 4 and 4.25 respectively.

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