Manchester City’s 3-0 FA Cup win over Norwich City shows their strength in depth for the remainder of the season, says Manuel Pellegrini.
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Aguero’s season has been stifled by a series of niggling injuries but this was his fourth consecutive start and he looked back to his scintillating best before going off with 21 minutes left.
Although these wins were punctuated by a 2-1 loss to Everton in the League Cup semi-final first leg at Goodison Park, Iheanacho hopes City’s travel sickness is behind them as they battle for trophies on four fronts.
He may not be glamorous, but in the 32-year-old, we have a player who is quietly efficient, effective on the ball and more importantly, a leader.
What’s your predicted score now we’ve seen the teams?
“We all know how good he is”, said Pellegrini of Aguero. “I trust a lot in them and in the first four months of the season we could do it, so I think we can finish that way also”. People might watch you, you don’t play well and lose and everybody will write you off but if you can get a bit of momentum it is massive.
Their makeshift centre-back pairing of Nicolas Otamendi and Martin Demichelis continues to look uncertain but Norwich, who made seven changes themselves, never really put the duo to the test.
“We are aware of the interest from West Ham but Pellegrini said it won’t fly (not possible)”.
Manchester City goalkeeper Willy Caballero had three saves on the afternoon.
Norwich chased the game sporadically after the break and did manage to have the ball in the net through Cameron Jerome after Jonny Howson’s good work, only for the offside flag to end their celebrations.
Those successes were achieved under Nigel Clough and Adkins, who replaced Clough as manager of the League One club in June, wants to follow in his footsteps by sending United crashing to a humiliating defeat at Old Trafford.
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“When you have players as important as Sergio it is very important for their team-mates, for the manager, for the fans to see them playing every game because he is a player that makes a difference”, Pellegrini said.
