Pellegrini tells Manchester City to avoid complacency against Norwich

LONDON (Reuters) – Premier League leaders Manchester City must guard against complacency against Saturday’s opponents Norwich City despite beating them 7-0 on their last visit to the Etihad Stadium, manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Friday.

That was two years ago, when the East Anglian side were relegated, before winning back their Premier League place last season.

“We cannot think about two seasons ago with Norwich, it’s different, another team, other names, another moment,”

Pellegrini told a media conference.

City now lead Arsenal only on goal difference after dropping two points with a goalless draw in the Manchester derby against United last weekend.

Spanish international David Silva, still suffering from an ankle injury, will not play on Saturday and Argentina full back Pablo Zabaleta will not be back until after the next international break, Pellegrini said.

Norwich have dropped to 16th in the table after losing their last three games, including a 6-2 defeat away to Newcastle United, and manager Alex Neil believes they will have to play a more cautious game.

“It will not be easy, they can spend £50 million ($76.86 million)on one player,” he told a news conference earlier on Friday.

“Our approach will have to be slightly different than recently, as we are probably going to have to err on the side of caution.

“West Ham went there and got a result, and we played very well against West Ham and probably should have won, so there is no reason why we can’t go and give a good account of ourselves.”

($1 = 0.6506 pounds)

(Reporting by Steve Tongue; Editing by Rex Gowar)