City return to home soil after a two week absence tomorrow and the message is clear from one and all ahead of the visit of Crystal Palace ? get the three points at all costs.
But they are going to have to overcome a voodoo of sorts if they are to be smiling come 5 o'clock tomorrow.
The Canaries haven't beaten the Eagles since 2003, when a Darren Huckerby penalty and a late, late Malky Mackay header secured a priceless victory at Carrow Road.
But if City's season is to get truly up and running, they must claim a maximum return this weekend ahead of a tricky month which includes visits to Charlton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
In truth, Peter Taylor's men have had an identical start to Norwich – one win, one draw and two defeats but they, like the Canaries, will be doing everything in their power to shift themselves up a few places in the embryonic Championship table.
Having strengthened their squad before the August transfer window slammed firmly shut, spirits will be high in the South-East London camp and in one of their arrivals ? Paul Dickov ? they have a proven Championship performer.
The Manchester City forward has been brought to Selhurst Park on loan and Eagles boss Taylor is clearly delighted with his new front man.
“I'm really pleased with Paul Dickov,” admitted Taylor, speaking to the Croydon Advertiser.
“Everyone here knows what he can do and he's settled in well. He's been training everyday and that is transferred onto the pitch.
“It's always helpful when a player has as much experience as Paul has and people like James Scowcroft have played in the same team as him, so they know what he's like and have that respect for him.
“I mentioned a couple of months before that if I could ever have a player like him it would be perfect.
“We need to score more goals and that is why we went out to get a couple more players on loan.”
The player himself will just be glad to be kicking a football again after an injury-plagued season last time out and new Eastlands chief Sven Goran Eriksson made it clear Dickov would not be part of the City revolution.
“My main aim is to get playing games again,” said Dickov.
“I wasn't really going to get that chance at City. When a manager signs players for ?7million or ?8m, he's going to play them. I understand that. But hopefully the manager here will give me my opportunity.
“I played in four pre-season games for City, so even though I didn't feature for them in the league, I'm still feeling reasonably fit. I had a bad season with injuries last year – it seemed to be one thing after another.
“But hopefully that's behind me now. I worked really hard in pre-season to get myself in shape, and hopefully the hard work's paid off.
“I was promoted three times with City, and once with Leicester. So hopefully I can be a lucky charm for Palace.”
Taylor has also been suitably impressed with Liverpool loanee Besian Idrizaj, who came close to opening his Palace account on several occasions in the 1-0 defeat at home to South-East London rivals Charlton two weeks ago.
“He's doing quite well and getting to know the players. He's swearing in English quite well as well, they taught him well at Liverpool on that one, so he's fitting in well here!
“The nice thing about the break for us was that we had a match against Charlton reserves so they were able to have a run out and get more match fit. So that's given us more attacking options in the match against Norwich.”
In team news, former England Under-21 boss Taylor is expected to name an unchanged squad with the only question mark being whether Dickov and Idrizaj will retain their places on the bench ? or whether Clinton Morrison or Scowcroft makes way for either to make their full Palace debut.
The match will come too early for injury victims Ben Watson and Paul Ifill and the absence of both key midfielders is clearly a cause for concern.
He said: “We desperately need Ben back. He can be a world class player and could help the team a lot,” Taylor added.
“We also need to score more goals there is no doubt about that. But I think we have been extremely unlucky not to have got any points from the last two matches.
“I think we deserved to get something out of both the Ipswich and Charlton games, but we will just have to move on a hope to get something from Saturday.
“At the end of the day, I've got no problem if I come away from the match saying we deserved something.”
Tom Haylett
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