Sweet escape for Manchester City at Carrow Road as United keep the gap at seven points

Roberto Mancini seemed very impressed with his side as they took a 2-0 lead within the first four minutes of the match against 11^th placed Norwich. Dzeko was the man behind both goals as Manchester City managed to secure all three points despite losing Samir Nasri.

Pilkington’s 15^th minute free kick deflected off City defenders gave the home side some hope as they headed for the dug out at the half-hour mark. Unfortunately for City, they went to half time as the disappointed side as Samir Nasri’s straight red card meant the defending champions had to play with ten men.

Once the game resumed, City extended their lead to 3-1 with a cool finish from Aguero. The Argentine chipped the ball above the Norwich keeper to give the away team space to breath.

The score line changed to 3-2 when Martin found the top right corner of the City goal on 63^rd minute. The champions weren’t done though. The Bosnian striker Dzeko beat the Canaries defence and his shot bounced off the woodwork but went back in the net, off the keeper’s back.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, Norwich got a corner and Martin was the fastest to react, however his goal wasn’t enough to earn the home side any points and the game finished 4-3.

City needed all three points from that match as Manchester United made sure to capitalise on their clash with West Bromwich. The Reds were dominant throughout the 90 minutes with 71% of the possession on the first half.

United went 1-0 up just on the ninth minute thanks to McAuley’s own goal. The Baggies player couldn’t direct Ashley Young’s shot off his goal and the deflection made sure that the miserable day in Manchester wasn’t getting any better for the travelling side.

Ben Foster, the West Brom’s keeper, was without a doubt the man of the match for his team. The former United keeper did well to tip over Ashley Young’s effort and made yet another safe a few minutes later from Michael Carrick.

Ferguson brought on Robin van Persie and the Dutchman once again got on the score sheet with a brilliantly constructed left-foot shot to seal the win for United and keep themselves seven points clear of Manchester City.

Third placed Tottenham were away to Sunderland on Saturday afternoon. Spurs didn’t have the best start to the game and went a goal down from O’Shea on 40^th minute but Andre Villas-Boas must have given his side a motivational speech as they seemed inspired on the second half.

Cuellar’s unfortunate own-goal just eight minutes after the restart was all the North London side needed to go on to win the match as Aaron Lennon’s pace was proved too much for the Sunderland defence. Lennon gave Spurs the 2-1 lead with his solo effort by beating Mignolet on 51^st minute. Tottenham are now on 36 points just six behind Manchester City.

Umida Ibrahimova, sports correspondent