Alex Neil insists Norwich City will do more than raise the white flag when they mix it with the Premier League big boys ahead of a daunting weekend trip to title favourites Manchester City.

The Canaries were routed 7-0 on their last visit to the Etihad in 2013 and Manuel Pellegrini's star-studded squad warmed up for City's visit by hammering Crystal Palace 5-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup. City also face Arsenal and Chelsea over the next few weeks, but Neil is backing his men to cause an upset or two.

'I want as many wins or as many points as you can from this spell,' he said. 'We went to Liverpool, and I believe our record was really poor, and we managed to get a draw and could have won it. The top teams can spend £50m on a player, which obviously is going to make a difference, and it will be a different challenge for us. It might require a slightly different approach because these are not teams in and around you where you might expect to go and really force the issue and be the better side.

'I still think there is more scope within my set of players to improve on where we find ourselves right now. If you are saying to me in relative terms we are where we should expect to be in the table then I would say, no, I think we can be better.

'If we cut out individual errors and our decision-making can be better in certain instances then hopefully that can happen quickly.'

Neil feels Norwich must take confidence from a battling cup exit at Everton earlier in the week ahead of their return to the north-west.

'Manchester City will be a completely different challenge from the one we faced at Everton,' he said. 'They play totally different in terms of their system so we are going to have to adapt and try as best as we can to cause them as many problems as we can and obviously keep it tight at the back. Saturday is going to be a completely different kettle of fish.'