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Manchester City Squander Opportunity To Go Top

Manchester City drew a blank for the second game in a row as they were held to a goalless draw away at Norwich City.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There was a brief stoppage when City midfielder Toure needed treatment after taking a knock to the face, but play soon started again.

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.