Manchester City are massive odds-on favourites to beat promoted Norwich, but the visitors will not roll over for the table-toppers on Saturday.

Manchester City continued their impressive march towards dominance of domestic football with victory over Arsenal in the Carling Cup in midweek, but with Man City’s crucial Champions League match on Wednesday, Roberto Mancini could be tempted to rest some of his key players. The problem for the Canaries, of course, is that City’s second string are more than a force to be reckoned with.

City are facing a tough task against Bayern Munich at the Etihad in midweek, but given their fate is out of their hands there is a strong argument for Mancini to make sure of the three points here and field as strong a team as he can. As Liverpool found to their dismay when Norwich visited Anfield and secured a 1-1 draw, Paul Lambert’s side offer fierce resistance. As such, expect two of Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko to start up front and for David Silva to be pulling the midfield strings. With that in mind, the tiny odds for a City win of just 1/5 (Coral – £30 free bets) do not seem particularly bad value.

This will not be the easiest fixture Norwich face this season, but every team can have an off day and the massive odds of 16/1 (Stan James – £150 free betting) for Norwich to sneak victory are possibly worth a small wager.

In reality, though, this should be a routine win for the home side, with the only thing likely to upset them being the distraction of the Champions League game ahead. Silva is due a goal, and he can be backed at 5/4 (Stan James) to score at some point in the match, while Aguero is 8/11 with the same bookie to add to his impressive tally for the season and fire his team to another three points.