Norwich City provided the first huge shock of the 19/20 Premier League as they took down Manchester City 3-2 at Carrow Road. Despite several injuries they were able to keep Man City at arms length for most of the first half, while providing two sucker punches, the second of which was a perfect example of how to break City’s press. After Otamendi’s error allowed them to go 3-1 up they only had one more shot the rest of the game but continued to limit the quality of City’s chances. Norwich did an incredible job between minutes 60 and 80 to run the game out and then survived a late onslaught for a famous victory.
Manchester City’s defense in their first game without Aymeric Laporte due to his knee injury did not look solid at all. While the way they play will always limit the number of chances the opposition has, the quality of chance conceded has to be a concern.
Even with Norwich’s incredible performance, the stats indicate that Manchester City were unlucky to not get at least a point. It’s premature to start thinking of this as anything other than an aberration but it’ll be interesting to see if this changes how other teams play when they come up against Manchester City in the coming weeks.
It’s only five games in, but Manchester City are already 5 points behind Liverpool, who extended their perfect start to the season. On the other hand, Norwich still have the leakiest defense in the division but have enough talent going forward that they’re going to cause problems for plenty of teams.
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