CITY may have Carrow Road showdowns with direct rivals Newcastle United and Sunderland on the horizon - but Alex Neil isn't discounting the chance to take points off title hopefuls Manchester City this Saturday (12.45pm).

The Canaries have nine games to preserve their status in the Premier League, and Neil has often pointed to the clutch of matches beyond the weekend's meeting with the Citizens as their season-defining period.

Speaking to Norwich City TV on Friday, however, he explained: "I spoke about the group of games afterwards because they're the teams that are going to be in and about us.

"Away to Man City in the league we performed really well and probably should have got something from the game. In the cup it was a different scenario.

"We're hoping we can put a good performance in against them and turn that into a result."

Manuel Pellegrini's side won the Capital One Cup last month but they are ten points adrift of surprise division leaders Leicester City, with their 4-0 victory over Aston Villa last time out ending a run of three defeats in a row.

Speculating about his team's approach to combating their opponents' aggressive style, he said: "It's tough. You can go and try fight fire with fire, but they're a good side.

"They've got attacking players with real flair, but if we can deal with that there are certainly vulnerabilities that you can try and take advantage of.

"We need to defend well when we need, but also pose a threat at the top end of the pitch. We're the home team and we need to try and win the game."

City almost snatched a point at the Etihad Stadium back in October, only for Yaya Toure's late penalty to secure a 2-1 triumph for the hosts.

Neil shaped his team in a 3-4-3 formation that day, and ahead of this game he commented: "We'll have a look at them and decide what's the best course of action for us to deploy in the game.

"Swansea was a bit of an apprehensive game for both teams. There wasn't much in it and you could how much the occasion meant to both sets of players.

"We want to eradicate that and make sure that the performances we put in against Leicester, Chelsea and West Ham we can replicate."

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