MAN CITY 2, NORWICH CITY 1
Manchester City endured a frustrating afternoon as they toiled to overcome a struggling but spirited Norwich City side at the Etihad.
It was a below-par display from City who had to rely on a late Yaya Toure penalty to overcome a resolute Canaries team that was set up to avoid another hefty defeat against their opponents.
They held City for three quarters of the game until centre-back Nicolas Otamendi broke the deadlock.
An error by Joe Hart handed Cameron Jerome an equaliser before Toure fired home the decisive spot kick to keep City top of the Barclays Premier League on goal difference from Arsenal.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini thought his side merited their victory and he praised the battling qualities of his side after Norwich drew level with seven minutes left.
He said: “In the last 10 minutes we showed character and personality and went for the game. We won a clear penalty that we scored and missed another.
“We played well against a difficult side and I think we deserved three points and from the beginning we tried to win the game.
“Norwich played very well and defended very well and made it difficult for us to create space. We missed three or four chances before Otamendi scored a beautiful goal.”
Pellegrini had sympathy for Hart saying: “He is a human being and anyone can make a mistake.
“He made a good save in the first half and another late in the game.”
Norwich manager Alex Neil blamed individual mistakes for their undoing.
“I feel we chucked away the game the points because I felt we had it in our own hands,” he said.
Neill admitted there was no way his side could go “toe to toe with City’s world-class players” after 7-0, 6-1 and 5-1 defeats in recent seasons and that is why he set up his side to frustrate playing three central defenders for the first time this season.
City made five changes from the midweek win against Norwich in the Capital One Cup with Hart, Bacary Sagna, Otamendi, Fernandinho and Vincent Kompany returning.
Willy Caballero, Martin Demichelis, Eliaquim Mangala, Fernando and Pablo Zabaleta were the players to lose out.
There was also a first Premier League start for teenage striker Kelechi Iheanacho who scored and provided two assists on his first competitive start in midweek.
City had scored 18 goals in their last four home games while Norwich conceded seven goals on their last visit to the Etihad two seasons ago when there were seven different scorers, including two own goals.
It was clear from the start there was not going to be an avalanche of goals in this fixture with Norwich far more resolute than on their last visit.
Wilfried Bony, however, had three glorious chances to give City the lead in the opening half hour. First he was denied by a super save by John Ruddy and then he twice blazed wide from just inside the box when he ought to have found the net.
Yet Norwich almost snatched an unlikely lead in the 28th minute when City keeper Hart spectacularly tipped over a shot from Matt Jarvis.
Ruddy pulled off a fabulous save to beat away a free kick from Toure that was arrowing towards the top corner.
Kompany also went close with a header from a corner that flew the wrong side of the upright as City were enduring a frustrating afternoon in front of goal.
City made their first change seven minutes into the second half when Iheanacho was replaced by Raheem Sterling.
The breakthrough came midway through the second half through an unexpected source as centre-back Otamendi scored his first goal for City.
The Argentine met Kevin De Bruyne’s corner and his bullet header from 12 yards found the top corner of the net.
And it could have been 2-0 shortly afterwards when Bony headed narrowly wide.
Norwich equalised with seven minutes left after an almighty clanger from Hart who dropped a routine Robbie Brady cross at the feet of Jerome who had the simplest of tap ins from little more than one yard out.
That was by no means the end of the drama as City regained the lead in the 89th minute, this time after a terrible error from Ruddy.
The keeper chased from his goal and failed to get the ball which ran to Sterling whose goalbound shot was handled by Russell Martin who was sent off and Toure scored from the spot.
Toure was unhappy to be substituted in stoppage time remonstrating with Pellegrini and storming straight down the tunnel.
Norwich came within a whisker of making it 2-2 when Hart pulled off a vital save to deny Martin Olsson as he redeemed himself for his earlier error.
City might have added a third goal in the seventh additional minute when Brady conceded a penalty after a trip on Sterling and Aleksandar Kolarov fired wide from the spot, a moment that characterised their afternoon.