Manuel Pellegrini admits the next three weeks could be the most significant of the season if Manchester City are to maintain their challenge for a domestic and European clean sweep and make the idea of replacing him with Pep Guardiola look nonsensical.
Sergio Agüero (second left) scored Manchester City's first goal of the game at Carrow Road
The notion that the Chilean might happily sacrifice the FA Cup in order to concentrate stretched resources on the three other trophy targets was knocked on the head when a much-changed but nonetheless strong line-up delivered a slick victory at Carrow Road, where Sergio Agüero appeared to have put his most recent injury problems behind him with an ominously impressive performance.
“It is always our aim at this club to be involved in all four competitions and January is a key month not only for the Premier League but also for both domestic cups,” Pellegrini said.
Agüero raced behind the Norwich City defence to slot home
“We have the second leg of the Capital One semi-final, we must try to continue in the next round of the FA Cup and in the Premier League it is important for us to close the gap on the two teams above us now because in February we start again in the Champions League. We have two home games in the Premier League, against Everton and Crystal Palace, and we must focus on those.”
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Clearly, Agüero’s fitness is likely to be a major influence, one way or the other. Another hamstring injury and more recently a damaged heel have seen him sidelined for 10 weeks of the season so far and Pellegrini’s desire to play him in every game, particularly when he can deliver solo goals of the quality he came up with on Saturday, may have to be set against the need to keep him ready to face tougher opposition than Norwich, who by their manager’s own admission saw the Cup as low priority.
Kelechi Iheanacho (right) doubled City's lead just after the half-hour mark
However, Pellegrini believes in any event that his squad is coping with the loss of key players. The emergence of 19-year-old striker Kelechi Iheanacho, whom Agüero set up for his fifth goal of the season in only his third start before Kevin de Bruyne came off the bench in the second half to score the third goal, suggests progress in developing players beyond simply buying in proven stars.
“There was a lot of criticism when we did not replace [Edin] Dzeko and [Alvaro] Negredo but when you have a young player who has the condition of Kelechi he deserves an opportunity,” he said.
“One of the most important things we are doing so far is that without Sergio, without many important players, we continue in all the competitions. This reflects the work we do every day.”
City celebrate their opening goal
Pellegrini emphasised again his commitment to attacking football, despite some indifferent results away from home. The win on Saturday was only a second in the past nine matches on the road in domestic competition.
“We receive some criticism that we did not get the results away but I think the way to try to achieve the results is not to think of playing a more defensive way,” he said. “We play an attractive style that the fans enjoy to see and we will continue to play this way and at the end see who is the best team.”
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