Man City (h); The Preview

Andy – With an (albeit undeserved) draw against Spurs the only blemish on Man City’s season so far, it’s been another imperious start to the season. It’s a two-horse title race already isn’t it?

Sam Lee – It is. I actually think the Spurs performance was their best of the season, but that’s just how it goes sometimes! The big question heading into the season was whether Liverpool can keep up the kind of incredible consistency they showed last season, and they still need to prove that as the season goes on, but obviously they’ve made a great start and it’s looking like it’ll be between those two teams – that said, I never thought it would be anything different.

No, I agree, and I actually think the much more interesting race this season will be for the top 4, with all the ‘traditional’ challengers looking eminently beatable.

Such is your consistency most Norwich fans are resigned to not only losing Saturday, but losing heavily and sights are already being turned to the run of four games we have after we get you lot out of the way. Can you offer us any hope at all? Pep has a soft spot for caravanning on the North Norfolk coast and thus is willing to gift us 3 points, helping to ensure he can come back again next year say?

Ha! Well I don’t think you’ll get any favours from Guardiola. I can’t see him taking any risks with selection, he’ll be picking his best team.

The biggest thing for Norwich to cling to is that Aymeric Laporte is City’s best and most consistent defender, and has been the cornerstone of everything they’ve done in the last 18 months, so his absence is going to be felt. Particularly because they don’t have a set replacement, and I think they’ll play Fernandinho there with Otamendi. Fernandinho has the skills to play there, I think, but it will be interesting to see how he does the first time.

That is slightly optimistic, because we are very strong going forward and in Teemu we have Europe’s hottest centre-forward, so a less than first choice centre-back pairing could be one avenue of joy. That said, I don’t think anyone expects us to keep a clean sheet, or even a slightly soiled one, so we might need to score a few in order to get anything…

It must be a strange feeling being a Man City player heading into a game, you’re expected to win. What is atmosphere around the club in week’s like this, where lesser mortals might succumb to complacency?

I think it all comes from Pep and his staff. There’s no room for complacency because they insist that the training and other preparation is exactly the same, for every match. It’s the same for League Cup and FA Cup, which is why they won the lot last season.

That’s why they’re always so consistent, and why they just get especially up for big games, but don’t drop for “smaller” ones.

Does that then transmit into the fanbase? I’d blithely assume City fans can’t be heading down to Norfolk with the same feeling of intensity as they would a Champions League trip to Munich? I can’t help but feel that as much as you want to win every week as a fan, actually doing so must be pretty dull?

I don’t think anybody’s complaining.

There’s a high standard now, to the extent that if there’s a bad 20-minute spell in games people are wondering what’s going on. There’s an expectation that they’ll win, so they never want to drop below that. City fans have been through the hard times too in the last 30 years, so they’re nowhere near sick of winning all the time just yet, and I doubt they ever will be.

That’s a good point actually, given their history. As someone outside the Norfolk bubble, what have you made to Norwich’s return to the top-flight?

I like the way they’re not afraid to play the type of football that was successful last season, and for that reason they bring something new to the league, they’re not just another British club hoping to fight and scrap for survival. They have those qualities but also have a plan and a style that should help them get more points, and (even though it may not be useful in the end) win them a lot of fans.

Obviously, there’s a bit of a quality gap, which is inevitable, but I hope, over the course of the season, they can pick up wins in their own way, and become part of the league, making it more diverse and interesting.

We like that answer much better than “aren’t you just the new Blackpool?” which we’ve heard a few times this week…

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, where do you think both clubs will finish and, additional question, if Pep was offered a choice between retaining the Premier League or finishing 2nd but winning the Champions League, which do you think he’d go for?

Good question. I think City will finish first, Norwich 17th.

As for the other one, it’s really tricky cos the logic to Guardiola prioritising the Premier League is because it gives you the consistency to win the cup competitions. He means that and it makes sense. But if City were to finish second by a couple of points to a great Liverpool team, for example, and win the Champions League, I do think he would take that actually. I think it would be a monkey off his back

I think if you offered Klopp the same deal, i.e. Liverpool win the league but City get the Champions League he’d take that too, for similar reasons about getting monkeys off backs.

Final question, specific prediction time. I’ll go full fat optimism and say that Norwich win 4-3. Yeah. We do that by starting fast and getting Fernandinho sent off for a late lunge to stop a goalscoring chance and concede a penalty. Then within the opening 10 minutes John Stones does the same and we go 2 up with City down to 9 men. With the sides suitably evened up, the next 85 minutes are end-to-end, but we just hold on…

Even in that case I’d back City to win 3-2. Or at least get a draw, I’m serious.

I do think it’ll be a close game actually, can see Norwich making it really tough, but I can see City winning 2-1 or maybe 3-1 if they take their chances. If they turn up really fired up it could be 4-0, but I can see it being a bit tighter after the international break, and players in different rhythms.

I genuinely think a good proportion of Norwich fans would take 4-0 if you offered it right now.

While you’re here…

Get in the mood for Saturday’s Champions v Champions showdown with a free pint, a Q&A with City (x2) hero Darren Huckerby and live music, courtesy of ACN Live.

• Tickets are £5 and available here