Football news - Manchester City suffer first league defeat since January in huge upset at Norwich
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ByEurosport
Updated 14/09/2019 at 21:37 GMT
Premier League, Carrow Road - Norwich City (McLean 18, Cantwell 26, Pukki 50) Manchester City (Aguero 45, Rodri 88)
Teemu Pukki of Norwich City celebrates with teammate Emiliano Buendia
Image credit: Getty Images
Norwich City produced one of the greatest Premier League upsets in recent times with a 3-2 win over Manchester City at Carrow Road.
The Canaries, missing four first-team regulars, raced into an eye-opening lead with two goals in 10 first-half minutes. First, Emiliano Buendia's corner found the unmarked Kenny McLean who headed in at the near post to break the deadlock.
Buendia was involved again as Norwich doubled their advantage, the midfielder carving the defence open to find Pukki and he unselfishly rolled it across the face of goal to gift Todd Cantwell with a simple tap in, capping a textbook counter-attack.
As poor as Man City were, they were given a huge lift when Sergio Aguero glanced in from Bernardo Silva's excellent cross just before the interval.
However, Norwich restored their two-goal lead five minutes after the restart in extraordinary fashion. Nicolas Otamendi was caught dwelling on the ball, Buendia robbed him and slid it to Pukki for a cool finish for his fifth goal of the campaign.
It wasn't City's day in defence or attack, as Aguero squandered a gilt-edged headed opportunity as the visitors grew increasingly desperate. And though Rodri scored his first goal in City colours with a shot from 20 yards late on, it was too little, too late, as Norwich held on to inflict a first league on Pep Guardiola's charges since January.
The result means Man City remain five points behind leaders Liverpool - who beat Newcastle 3-1 earlier in the day - while Daniel Farke's side move up to 12th place. Guardiola's side will hope to bounce back on Wednesday night when they travel to Shakhtar Donestsk in the Champions League, three days before they host Watford in league action. Norwich, meanwhile, take on Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday.
TALKING POINT - Norwich land a blow on clumsy City
City have few flaws in a record-breaking team but an over-reliance on Laporte has already been underlined. The centre-back has been ruled out for six months with injury and Guardiola must be wishing it was already February. His centre-back pairing of John Stones and Otamendi produced a horror show, constantly giving the ball away and putting their team under huge pressure. It was a day to forget for City's defence in general, with full-backs Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kyle Walker also failing to cover themselves in glory, the latter caught napping to play the hosts on-side for their second.
Is this the first twist in the race for the title? It may be early stages but Liverpool have set such a high standard of late and five points seems like a significant gap to close considering City are in such relatively poor form, having dropped points in two of their five opening games.
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Teemu Pukki of Norwich City celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's third goal
Image credit: Getty Images
MAN OF THE MATCH - Emiliano Buendia (Norwich)
The talented Argentine has already registered four assists in the Premier League. This was a supreme performance from the 22-year-old, his delivery of crosses and passing proving deadly, putting City to the sword.
PLAYER RATINGS
Norwich: Krul 7, Byram 8, Godfrey 7, Amadou 7, Lewis 7, Tettey 7, McLean 8, Buendia 9, Stiepermann 7, Cantwell 7, Pukki 8. Subs: Srbeny N/A, Drmic N/A.
Man City: Ederson 6, Walker 5, Stones 4, Otamendi 4, Zinchenko 5, Rodri 6, D Silva 6, Gundogan 5, B Silva 6, Aguero 5, Sterling 6. Subs: Mahrez 5, De Bruyne 6, Jesus 5.
KEY MOMENTS
18' - GOAL! Norwich 1-0 Man City: Wow! Norwich lead! Buendia sends his corner deliver to the near post where McLean, who has lost his marker, heads it from close range, giving Ederson no chance!
28' - GOAL! Norwich 2-0 Man City: You won't believe this! Buendia carves open City's defence with a lovely pass to Pukki on the right, and suddenly Norwich are in a really promising position. Instead of shooting, the forward selfishly rolls it across the face of goal and Cantwell taps it into an empty net. Textbook football on the break.
45' - GOAL! Norwich 2-1 Man City: Awful time to concede for the hosts, but relief for Man City - they have one back. Aguero slips in between two Norwich defenders to head home from Bernardo Silva's cross.
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Norwich City's Todd Cantwell celebrates scoring their second goal
Image credit: Reuters
50'- GOAL! Norwich 3-1 Man City: The hosts restore their two-goal lead, but City only have themselves to blame. This is shocking from Pep's side. Stones plays it casually to Otamendi, he is too ponderous on the ball and Buendia steals in, robs him of the ball and slips it to Pukki who slots it home!
78' - Aguero misses! It's certainly not the Argentine's day. Sterling lifts a cross into the box but Aguero gets too much on his header and it's over the bar. That's the second gilt-edged chance he's missed today.
88' - GOAL! Norwich 3-2 Man City: Oh, what have we here? Hope for City after all! Rodri scores his first goal for the club with a powerful shot from 20 yards. Krul got a hand to it but couldn't keep it out. Game on!
KEY STATS
- Norwich are the first newly promoted team to win in the Premier League against Man City under Guardiola, ending the champions' 18-game unbeaten run.
- They were ahead for 72 minutes - Man City trailed for only 132 minutes in the Premier League in the whole of last season.
- Teemu Pukki is the sixth player to score six or more goals in his first five Premier League appearances.
- Man City suffered a Premier League defeat against a newly-promoted opponent for the first time since March 2015 against Burnley – they had been unbeaten in 25 such matches before today, including all 18 under Pep Guardiola.
- Sergio Aguero is the third player to score in a team’s first five Premier League matches of a season, after José Antonio Reyes for Arsenal in 2004-05 and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United in 2011-12.
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