Manchester City drew a blank for the second game in a row as they were held to a goalless draw away at Norwich City.<\/p>\n
Stalemate at Carrow Road prevented Manuel Pellegrini’s side from climbing back to the top of the Premier League table, while the Canaries will take heart from a battling display but remain just two points clear of the drop zone.<\/p>\n
A keenly-contested opening 45 minutes delivered few opportunities of note, with Gary Hooper having a bundled effort rightly ruled out for offside and Alvaro Negredo crashing a header from a corner flicked on at the near post off the face off the crossbar.<\/p>\n
The second half followed a similar pattern, with a lack of urgency from City seeing Yaya Toure locked into a restrictive holding midfield role and Negredo replaced by Aleksandar Kolarov in a bemusing switch by Pellegrini.<\/p>\n
Norwich had a goal correctly ruled out for offside when Hooper swept the loose ball home inside the six-yard box after Joe Hart had saved a bullet header from Leroy Fer at point-blank range after a corner.<\/p>\n
There was a brief stoppage when City midfielder Toure needed treatment after taking a knock to the face, but play soon started again.<\/p>\n
Norwich, though, almost snatched it at the death as first Redmond’s cross was just too far ahead of Van Wolfswinkel and Pilkington fired just over after turning Zabelata.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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