London: Manchester City succumbed to a first Premier League defeat since January in stunning fashion to newly-promoted Norwich 3-2.
Liverpool were the big winners of the day as the gaps left in City’s defence by the injured Aymeric Laporte were exposed at Carrow Road. “Of course it is special day for us and for the club,” said Norwich boss Daniel Farke. “We had to be special in our plan for City because they are the best team in the world and we had setbacks too with our injuries, but we deserved the win. We were exceptional.” Kenny McLean showed up the champions’ struggles to defend set-pieces with a towering header to open the scoring and Teemu Pukki then squared for Todd Cantwell to make it 2-0 inside 28 minutes.
City regained their composure and got a foothold in the game before half-time when Sergio Aguero headed home Bernardo Silva’s cross. However, with Laporte out till January at least with a serious knee injury. Pep Guardiola has problems to solve at the heart of his defence as John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi gifted Norwich a third at the start of the second-half.
United, Chelsea, Tottenham and Leicester are all now level on eight points from five games behind the top two. (AFP)
