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Not often you would say that when you have been beaten like that, but genuinely felt there was a lot to admire by the boys in yellow. Clearly outclassed, by a team in a very different league. But ONE of their players is worth the whole of our squad. Attitude was very good, didn’t let the heads drop, some good stuff , also a fair bit of luck. Rashica first half was excellent. We feel in a very different place, than when I left Stamford bridge. Encouraging for games to come. Don’t need ridiculous decisions like the penalty for the 4th, another sign that small sides like us do have to beat more than the 11 on the other side. Despite that lads did alright !!

The fact is LDC, that was a far better performance than we would have got if your beloved Farke had been in charge. OK, we lost 4-0 nil but we had intent, desire, fight, we were direct and we created chances. Remember some of those dire performances 2 years ago, and again earlier this season, where we had lost the game in the dressing room before we came out on to the pitch and then tried to be too clever by playing endless tippy tappy stuff that got us nowhere. But of course, even though you might see it, you will never admit it. Eventually you will have to let go of this weird notion that Farke would have sorted it out.

Well I am going to say, goal aside, everyone is playing well and it’s not been awful. Pretty good.

The early results today were a bit of a mixed bunch but they could have been a lot worse so my thoughts on the ride down to CR were more along the lines of a "please don't get hammered" rather than hoping for a miracle. Smith made a couple of changes with Idah and Placheta being replaced by Sargent and Gilmour. It didn't take long for the visitors to assume control and they found plenty of space out wide as the home rearguard packed the centre of the field. Hanley and Gibson were quickly in the thick of things as cute balls from midfield turned either fullback. Gunn had to parry a close range effort and then was lucky when the ball dropped into his arms after Silva hit the inside of the post. Things were looking ominous but City brought the crowd to life when Rashica appeared to get away from Stones but couldn't find a shot to worry Ederson, and in any event play was pulled back for an infringement. It was mostly backs to the wall stuff early doors and Gunn was seeing plenty of action with another good stop from a close range header but then Williams brought the crowd to life with a strong run into the visitors half and a pass that gave Pukki a chance from the angle which Ederson saved at his near post. The home side were having to do a lot of chasing in midfield, attempting to close down space but the ball was being passed about with such pace and accuracy that the front men were living on scraps. There was finally some home goalmouth action on about twenty minutes when City had a spell of decent possession and won a couple of corners. Sargent couldn't get enough on his header but City retained possession through PLM who sent in a cross that Grant Hanley met perfectly. It looked to be heading in but the crowd jumped up in front of me so I didn't see it hit the post. It certainly got the crowd going and for a while I think we were all dreaming of another 2019. It wasn't to be however as on the half hour a cross went through everybody and Sterling "power curled"(thankyou Palma😉) it into the far top corner. It was disappointing but not surprising and to their credit City almost hit back with a strong period of play down their right with Pukki and Sargent setting up a chance for Kenny McLean who could only drag a low shot from 18 yards well wide. One down at the break didn't feel too bad and for most of us wishful thinkers there was still a chance of getting something out of the game. Unfortunately that smidgeon of hope was snatched away when the visitors extended their lead a couple of minutes after play resumed. Gundogan always seemed to be able to find space and when he got behind the defence, panic ensued and in a scramble 3 yards out Foden forced the ball over the line after a couple of brave blocks had delayed the outcome. Hanley almost scooped the ball off the line but the refs watch had already signalled a goal. From there on it was pretty much all up with the visitors bossing possession and chances as the home side desperately chased shadows. There can be no denying that they are a great side and they gave us a bit of a chsing at times although everyone stuck to their guns and you couldn't fault the effort. Rashica had a shot saved by Ederson in a rare raid down the left but the crowd was quiet and in truth there was little to raise the spirits. Byrom came on for Aarons but he couldn't stop Sterling making it three on seventy minutes with a close range header and then Norman came on for PLM and late on Dowell replace Sargent. I was then just hoping we could see it out without anymore damage. Unfortunately Andre Marriner who I thought had been pretty poor throughout, couldn't resist sticking his oar in and awarding a weak penalty right on ninety minutes. Gunn did well to parry to his left but the rebound fell nicely for Sterling to tuck it away. Lots of effort from all in yellow and green but the class gap was there for all to see. Kenny ran his guts out, Rashica and Pukki inspired odd moments of hope but inspite of the score Grant Hanley was my MOM today. Without him it could have been even worse. On a lighter note, at least we don't have to worry about staying up on goal difference.

We have some real mentally challenged people in our fanbase. Up until the mistake for the goal Sterling could get nothing out of him one-on-one, and he's just faced one world class and one top Premiership wide man in a week. In reality he has just turned 22, has over 150 appearances in the top two tiers, and has attracted interest from some elite European teams, but on Planet Pink'Un he is apparently just a top Championship player. I really like Byram as a player, but some of the criticism aimed at Max, who has been effectively injury free in his career for us, loyal, and the utmost professional is really misguided IMO.

Well that's a predictable waste of everyone's saturday evening. **** off Man Citeh, twats.

Gutted with that scoreline, not because Norwich were poor, but because it was never a 4-0 game. Ridiculous penalty that only the big teams would get, Norwich played a lot better than the score suggests.

The new ManC sub isn't allowed to play in the Middle East. Apparently you can't have your Kayky and Egypt.

Good luck to them, they are an absolutely nothing club with virtually zero outside interest or support from anyone outside their area such is their currant standing in football. Good luck to MK Dons as well.

I think we can stay ahead of Watford and Burnley. I'm struggling to see a third team. Brentford are the most likely, I think. I think we should be celebrating the fact we are still having this conversation. We have done so well to drag ourselves back into something like contention.

its always been highly unlikely. The Runes were clear enough by the end of October. To still be in with a shout is an acheivement in itself.

LDC doesn’t ‘read the room’ very well, does he….it was a decent performance against the best side in the country, if not the world. Picking holes in this and that is pointless and somewhat unfair. They all put in a decent shift.

A post attacking Pukki, a post attacking Aarons. We fans get upset when someone like Cantwell shows no loyalty to our club, but can you blame the players when fans show no loyalty to people like Pukki and Aarons who have given them some of their best seasons ever as supporters?

After three and a half seasons of consistently excellent performances, he's allowed a bad week.

It's called form, professional sports people go through good and bad spells of it.

and Sorenson for McLean and Krul for Gunn!

Talk and joke all you like but this is highly likely to happen now and won’t stop at the gates of Kiev or Ukraine. Putin knows that he has never had a better chance to regain a large part of USSR, that’s his aim. He/they would never have tried this had the west had at least one strong leader, 100% not with a Thatcher or Reagan, maybe not even with Trump. This is not just my opinion but has been told to me by many within the former USSR military, of high rank. It’s conclusive. Russians respected Margret Thatcher and also feared her. There is zero respect for any Western leader now and certainly they fear no one. Ukraine has a massive capability to resist and a hard core National population who will fight and fight on. It won’t end quickly and it won’t stop on their boarders. Crimea and the ‘ Donbas ’ was a tester to see how the West would react basically. They didn’t support Ukraine in any big way, so we are where we are today. Is Putin an evil dictator?. No not really, even though I personally stand to lose over 10 years work and most of our life’s savings, should they invade fully or part. Would the US or even UK want Russian weapons on its door step or it’s culture overrun ? Ukraine is a Red Line . Very delicate times, for everyone. It’s been handled badly for years, Russia already has so much control within the west, Putins agents have been working well. Germany is almost neutralised, UK forces are good but to small, the US is run by a geriatric, China is onside and the rest hardly matter….. Never a better time to invade or threaten and steal another large part of the former USSR. The truth is very few people really understand how this part of the world works, it’s not good enough to educate yourself through books or media. If you take Ukraine as an example, the majority of this vast country is hidden, it has a huge history which is hardly known. People make decisions without understanding the true mindset of its people or there relationship with Russia. Yes many ( millions) Ukrainians will fight to the bitter end but they are fighting’ brothers’. There is some historic grievances relating to pre WW2 and the Holodomor. 10’s of millions of Ukrainians were staved to death by Stalin, Ukraine men were the main fighting force on the eastern fronts against the Nazis . Its a deep discussion, my loyalty is with my true friends in Ukraine, they stood beside me in dangerous times, I support them now even though I can see the counter view. I might have slightly different view after my next visit this week, if it happens or I return.

Fantastic post Sweary Worthy used to say we had to earn the right to play our football. On tuesday we were still earning it at the end of the game. And that will be the case for the rest of the season. Especially if we stay up. I've listened to Dean Smith's press conferences and he explains thing so that even I can understand. That Southampton game where we hardly had an attack in the first half still showed an improvement in 'defending our box'. This has continually improved to the point where we don't sit there panicking when we see crosses coming in. Even from corners. The improvement is astounding. Then just last week he was talking about 'controlling the game without the ball'. I assume that to means, amongst other things, trying to control from where the ball comes into our box. It seems we're now happiest to defend crosses so try and make the opposition do that. Is it entertaining though? Would the player who was best at controlling the game without the ball ever get MOM? Or would we more likely say "he contributed nothing"?

I think I’m happy to tolerate the pretty dull football we are seeing as, even if (when) we go down it’s been with less of a whimper. I wouldn’t be happy with it long term tbh as my desperation to stay in the EPL becomes less every time a billionaire club pays multi millions for bang average players (but enough to buy their way into the top table year on year), is outweighed by the fact that I pay a s*** load of money so I can be entertained. I’m a norwich fan through and through and season ticket holder, so soulless football to argue over the scraps from the top table isn’t something I relish and it demeans the club. I do however think smith and shakey have the ability to produce good football, so I’m looking forward to seeing some next season. In the meantime Daniel F oozed class in the good times and I enjoyed norwich being the envy of the league last year. Felt very proud of what we did and how we did it Sweary

Videos: Articles: The BBC have their pre game piece here. The pink'un report on the pre-match presser is here. The club have their game preview piece on canaries.co.uk here. Ins, Outs, shake it all abouts: Norwich - Sargent returns after recovering from illness. Rupp a doubt because of a hamstring tweak. Omobamidele suffered a set-back in training and is injured. Kabak is yet to return to training from being out with illness. Krul remains out injured. Man City - No Jesus or Palmer. A little bit of knowledge: Manchester City Football Club came into existence in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton) before changing Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and then, finally, Manchester City in 1894. The club entered the football league in 1899. The first trophy they won was the FA Cup in 1904 with their first, successful period coming in the late 1960's under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcome Allison winning the league, FA Cup and League Cup. A period of decline followed their appearance in the 1981 FA Cup final, a decline that saw them slip as far as the third tier of English football before a resurgence saw them get back to the premier league and then bought for £210million in 2008 by the current owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group. The rest, most of us know, hundreds of millions of pounds later, side-stepping FFP with a highly controversial "sponsorship", has bought them much success, though arguably, they continue to struggle in Europe. In fact, despite the money, the only European title to their name is the Cup Winners Cup which they won in the 1969-70 season. Rays Funds for the Community Sports Foundation Nutty has his PUPs thread up and running as usual. Please do go and take a look and take part in all of the fun. A Little Something Extra: The club has an article up having spoken to Ashley Ward recently. And for some half term fun:

He's not quite good enough. Chump squad player at best. Sorry if that offends.

Instead of slating Pukki, who is one of the main reasons we have had such a fantastic last few years, talk about replacing a midfield which, since we sold Buendia, seems incapable of weighting a pass through to him. Two or three times today we were on the attack, Pukki was making his run, and McLean, PLM or Gilmour thumped the ball way too hard.

Deano seems to have told him to play closer to the centre backs but this leaves him very exposured and under pressure with a lot of ground to cover. Giving the likes of Zaha and Sterling the freedom of the pitch is not good tactics and is certainly no help to Max. Sadly not tall and physical enough for the Premiership.

I just really despise watching us in fixtures like this (and probably next week). Did ok for spells and didn’t play badly but the sickening disparity in resources, coupled with the officials lending a helping hand as usual just makes that sort of result inevitable and the games deeply unenjoysble. In terms of what we could do differently, I think 7 fouls in 90 minutes tells a story. We just don’t have any midfielders who put their foot in and can rough the opposition up.

If it hadn’t been for Arab money they’d still be at ****ty Maine Road in ****ty division 3

I did say earlier in week I’d start Byram over Aarons at moment. Now I’d either put Byram on and either put Max in front of him or take max off.

Are you saying McClean has been poor?because he hasn’t.

We’ve had our chances, we can pull this back.

He’s our next superstar isn’t he! I’m absolutely loving his play

He said midlands yellow smells and should have a good wash

Fair enough. I have to be honest, I feel really sorry for the original Wimbledon fans, for them it was terrible. I just think it is almost 20 years ago, and the problems started 10 years before that, at the time club at the time tried very hard to stay in the Borough, it is too binary to say the fault lay with the club. The local council and residents did everything they could to stop the clubs development. In contrast Milton Keynes supported the construction of a modern stadium and facilities. We are so lucky to have owners who respect the ties our club have with the community, and have ensured we have the stadium and facilities needed for a top football club. It is definitely not the fault of the current MK Dons fans, undermining their validity must be frustrating, especially for any of their fans who are younger than 30, and did not personally decide to move the club, but who love their club as much as we love Norwich. The bigger issue in football are all these multi millionaire owners who believe premiership football is all that matters. It has stopped being a fair competition and the owners have no connection with their fan base, but the fans are happy as long as they are successful. It is a fine line between being a Man City - Leicester - Newcastle - Fulham - Bournemouth - Hull - Derby.

corrected that for you!

New development, we're all getting a questionnaire about the No. 10 parties so that we can be eliminated from the Police's investigation. Report will be due in 2029.

Oh. I'm not suggesting that we cannot outnumber their away support by some distance when the occasion demands, that's not in doubt. Those were genuine special event scenarios, whereas making such a big event of a League One fixture at MK Dons when the club only has a very outside chance of even reaching the play-offs seems somewhat created. Nevertheless they are making an enormous deal of it and the match has now even been called their "Cup Final" (yet another.) in some quarters. It does seem that if they do lose this afternoon then any remnant of hope of them avoiding a fourth season in the basement areas will have finally evaporated. With City being broadcast later one could even be tempted to seek out a binner stream for the purpose of, hopefully, getting a nice helping of schadenfreude. However, the lure of an hour or two of sychronised knitting from Estonian televison is usually hard to resist on such occasions.

It's absolutely that I'd say. I'm sure I remember the majority of folk being pleased when Kabak was signed, and it looked like a pretty decent stable of centre halves in terms of what we can afford.

Most people will feel entertained for as long as we're creating chances and scoring goals I feel.

Heaven knows I'm miserable now.

Unfortunately any "God complex" was created by fans and the club. Daniel Farke came across as professional, respectful, and diplomatic and anything but a celebrity. If his success under challenging constraints is ignored, that will be the disgrace.

That was the only real criticism of DF. Very rigid in what we were to do on the pitch. Whereas under Deano we seem to be adapting to the situation whether where we are in the table or during a game. But I will never forget exactly what DF achieved at Carrow Road. Two seasons of exciting and winning football. Which is all I personally need to make me happy.

Well done Swindon👍👍 0-4 paid £12 10+ corners paid £1.90 So you added £13.90 👏👏 PUPanons insurance added another £1.17 so that's £15.07 from the match picks.

God that city stand looks like something from Grays Athletic

Yes, he is totally off the pace today and should of been hooked half time

PLM with a terrible giveaway. Normann must be on to start the second half for Kenny or PLM. Don't care which one, but get Normann on. Overall I'd actually say a great first half for Norwich. Really fought the whole time and had ManCity on their heels on a number of different occasions.

Aarons worst first half for a while

We still have Normann to come on. There is hope while its only one goal

I never in a million years thought we’d get from the ironic cheering of palace away to hitting the post versus Man City so quickly maybe we’ll go down, but we are ALIVE.

...........that's due to their owner Sul Tana presumably 😉 I'll get me coat 😳

Kabak is a fascinating one. He clearly has a lot of ability but he seems to currently lack the mental discipline to be either a centre back or a CDM. His decision-making is often poor and seems to depend more on a rush of blood to the head than anything else. He has the body and skill-set of a young defender, but the erratic mentality of a young winger. He still is very young, though, and I think there's an excellent player in there somewhere if he's willing to learn and develop. Personally I'd keep him on the books if we can.

Did he? 28% possession and conceded over the double the amount of shots we had. I'd say they totally controlled midfield and our inability to win second balls or collect from the centre halves and play were the reason we didn't take three points. Normann in for McLean asap.