Kevin de Bruyne added City’s third in the closing stages as Manuel Pellegrini’s side moved into the fourth round draw and maintained their bid to win a quadruple of the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup.
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Early in the second half, Iheanacho had an effort saved before Sterling’s shot was blocked by the Norwich defence.
Signing cover during the January transfer window is an option but Pellegrini says that is unlikely.
Manchester City have not lost an away FA Cup game since 2010.
Premier League survival remains the priority for Norwich this season, and they were just beginning to build up a head of steam before the FA Cup break.
Aguero’s return to fitness and form is a timely boost for Pellegrini, who admits it is key to his side’s hopes of silverware that the striker remains injury-free.
While the fixture schedulers would surely find time to squeeze in all of City’s games somewhere, Pellegrini’s point is that pushing for success on four fronts is bound to result in a failure somewhere along the line. Ironically, the player that hadn’t seen a goal in 60+ games was the one to see his name in lights as Jesus Navas put the ball in smoothly off of a Sergio Aguero assist. But the way we play, our mentality, we give chances but we also create a lot of chances.
As for Norwich, their season will be defined by their battle to extend their latest Premier League stay beyond one season and manager Alex Neil is well aware of that fact, ahead of an important week for the Canaries.
“Manchester United should beat a League One side but that’s the beauty of the FA Cup and especially the third round”, Adkins said.
“Maybe the first game he didn’t play so well”.
“It’s very important to be focused game by game”.
“Vincent is progressing, it’s a muscle injury and we must not rush him”, Pellegrini said.
“Belief comes with wins, that is the bottom line”.
“We’ve got to brush this off, that’s what I will be doing and the team will be doing”.
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“We have found a nice balance at the moment, we are looking threatening going forward and that is now two clean sheets”.
