Norwich City upset champions Manchester City with shock 3-2 win

Defending Premier League Champions Manchester City suffered their first defeat of the season and first first league loss since January after going down 3-2 to Norwich City at Carrow Road.

Goals from Kevin McLean, Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki saw last season’s promoted Championship winners overwhelm Pep Guardiola’s men with a brilliant display in from of a boisterous Norfolk crowd.

The Champions had kicked off five points behind Liverpool at the top of table following the Reds’ 3-1 victory over Newcastle in the early kick off, knowing they couldn’t afford any slip-ups even this early in the season.

Having won nine games in a row on the road since losing to Newcastle last winter, few would have looked past City taking all three points at Norwich.

Daniel Frake’s injury-ravaged side came into the game having conceded 10 goals from their opening four matches, set-up to frustrate City and managed to keep their opponents at bay during the opening exchanges.

On a rare attack 18 minutes in, the Canaries forced a corner and from the resulting set-piece, Scottish midfielder McLean powered a header past Ederson giving the home side a shock lead.

City pushed for an immediate equaliser but the Norwich defence held firm. When Aguero did find himself free at the far post, he could only put his header over the crossbar.

The home side then did the unthinkable and doubled their lead through Cantwell just before the half hour.

With Guardiola’s side sending men forward, Norwich were able to pounce on the counter attack with Teemu Pukki springing the offside trap before squaring to the England youngster to slot home.

As City fought their way back into the game, a header from Sterling could only find the far post signalling exactly what type of day they were having in East Anglia.

However, they weren’t to be denied for too much longer as Sergio Aguero’s glancing header halved the deficit moments before half time.

Guardiola knew he needed to fire up his players for the second half but it was Norwich who came out all guns blazing and unbelievably made it 3-1 just four minutes after the break.

Confusion in the Manchester City defence saw Emiliano Buendia dispossess Nicolas Otamendi in his own penalty area to feed Pukki to stab past Ederson.

Despite the setback, City would have felt they had ample time to mount a comebackbut Farke’s side were resolute in defence and even continued to threaten in bursts through Buendia and Pukki in particular.

Guardiola threw on more big name stars in Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez but chances came and went with the Canaries defence, marshalled fantastically by Ibrahim Adamou, hanging on.

Even when the backline was breached, Tim Krul made a number of fine saves to keep the visitors at bay, including a stunning tip over the bar from another Augero header late on.

City eventually found a way through when summer signing Rodri fired into the bottom right hand corner from the edge of the penalty area to set up a grandstand finish but Norwich were able to hang on for what will undoubtedly be the result of their season.