By Bulldog Drummond
Norwich are currently sixth in the Championship, in the bottom play-off place five points off the second spot that brings automatic promotion.
Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
1 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 13 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 24 | 13 | +11 | 29 |
2 | Cardiff City | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 18 | 10 | +8 | 27 |
3 | Sheffield United | 13 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 11 | +7 | 27 |
4 | Leeds United | 13 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 12 | +9 | 23 |
5 | Aston Villa | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 13 | +6 | 22 |
6 | Norwich City | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 13 | 14 | -1 | 22 |
And indeed we should be aware that Norwich are on a very good run and full of confidence. Last season they came eighth in the league and missed the play offs by ten points. Here are the recent matches…
Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
26 Aug 2017 | Millwall v Norwich City | L | 4-0 | Championship |
09 Sep 2017 | Norwich City v Birmingham City | W | 1-0 | Championship |
12 Sep 2017 | Norwich City v Burton Albion | D | 0-0 | Championship |
16 Sep 2017 | Sheffield United v Norwich City | W | 0-1 | Championship |
19 Sep 2017 | Brentford v Norwich City | W | 1-3 | League Cup |
23 Sep 2017 | Norwich City v Bristol City | D | 0-0 | Championship |
26 Sep 2017 | Middlesbrough v Norwich City | W | 0-1 | Championship |
30 Sep 2017 | Reading v Norwich City | W | 1-2 | Championship |
14 Oct 2017 | Norwich City v Hull City | D | 1-1 | Championship |
22 Oct 2017 | Ipswich Town v Norwich City | W | 0-1 | Championship |
As we can see, since the hammering by Millwall it has been nine games in a row without defeat, including the (what I guess was for them was a great, overwhelming feeling) beating their local rivals Ipswich. The fact that these two local rivals are over 50 miles apart doesn’t seem to reduce the excitement.
However what we might note is that in the last five games they have scored five and conceded two, so this is a team with a mean defence and not an overwhelmingly strong attack. A sort of second division version of Arsenal in 1992/3 when in a 42 match season we scored 40 and let in 38. If you were there you’ll remember it.
Which means we are going to need some high level inventiveness from the second team, and I suspect Jack Wilshere and Reiss Nelson could flourish in this environment. A couple of early goals would set the tone.
What is interesting is that Norwich are a bit of an up and down side of late
Season | League | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | Position | FAC | LgeC | Top scorer | Goals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011/2 | Prem | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 52 | 66 | 47 | 12th | R5 | R2 | Holt | 17 |
2012/3 | Prem | 38 | 10 | 14 | 14 | 41 | 58 | 44 | 11th | R4 | QF | Holt | 8 |
2013/4 | Prem | 38 | 8 | 9 | 21 | 28 | 62 | 33 | 18th | R3 | R4 | Hooper | 8 |
2014/5 | Chmp | 46 | 25 | 11 | 10 | 88 | 48 | 86 | 3rd | R3 | R3 | Jerome | 21 |
2015/6 | Prem | 38 | 9 | 7 | 22 | 39 | 67 | 34 | 19th | R3 | R4 | Mbokani | 7 |
2016/7 | Chmp | 46 | 20 | 10 | 16 | 85 | 69 | 70 | 8th | R3 | R4 | Jerome | 16 |
Several points of interest here. The goals for column shows an incredible variance, from 28 to 88, back down to 39 up to 35. This reflects the moves from the premier league down to the Championship. But this season they are not yet delivering a Championship style attack – at the present rate they are going to end up with a paltry 48 goals.
Also we can see that they don’t traditionally go in for many high scorers in a season – imagine having your top scorer knock in just eight. Must have been hard to take.
We can also see from the table above that the club has not had too much of a run in the cups of late, while Arsenal of course have picked up the FA Cup (not a trophy) three times in the past four years.
However despite seeing Norwich as a club we should easily beat, it should be remembered that out of the 57 games between the sides Norwich have won 11. Of course this has in part been aided by the deep wells that are dug into the edge of the pitch for camera positions, which as we know can cause serious injury to unwary visitors.
But in the Premier League era it hasn’t been too bad for Arsenal:
Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
15 Aug 1992 | Arsenal v Norwich City | L | 2-4 | Premier League |
03 Mar 1993 | Norwich City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
26 Oct 1993 | Arsenal v Norwich City | D | 1-1 | League Cup |
30 Oct 1993 | Arsenal v Norwich City | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
10 Nov 1993 | Norwich City v Arsenal | W | 0-3 | League Cup |
13 Feb 1994 | Norwich City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
10 Sep 1994 | Norwich City v Arsenal | D | 0-0 | Premier League |
01 Apr 1995 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 5-1 | Premier League |
28 Aug 2004 | Norwich City v Arsenal | W | 1-4 | Premier League |
02 Apr 2005 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 4-1 | Premier League |
19 Nov 2011 | Norwich City v Arsenal | W | 1-2 | Premier League |
05 May 2012 | Arsenal v Norwich City | D | 3-3 | Premier League |
20 Oct 2012 | Norwich City v Arsenal | L | 1-0 | Premier League |
13 Apr 2013 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 3-1 | Premier League |
19 Oct 2013 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 4-1 | Premier League |
11 May 2014 | Norwich City v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | Premier League |
29 Nov 2015 | Norwich City v Arsenal | D | 1-1 | Premier League |
30 Apr 2016 | Arsenal v Norwich City | W | 1-0 | Premier League |
Certainly the run from 1992 to 1994 was pretty awful, with just one Arsenal win in seven. But the last defeat was at Norwich back in 2012. Since then it has been four wins and a draw, all in the the Premier League.
More tomorrow.
- There really is something a little odd about Everton especially when they play Arsenal.
- We won 5-2 so what did they say about it? How football commentary is being manipulated
- Everton – Arsenal 2-5, a walk in the (Goodison) Park
Wonderfull news Ronald koeman available to become manager for Arsenal at least i think thats what all the so called Wenger out fans wanted.
no disrespect ment for RK.
Allan
I think that ship sailed long ago.
Apparently Norwich needs disambiguation.
There are other places named Norwich: Ontario, Jamaica, Kansas, Massachusetts, two in New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, and Roanoke, Virginia.
Some people confuse Norwich with a ship.
And the wikipedia disambiguation page, has a Brickfields-ism which I won’t disclose.
For a long time, Norwich was the second largest city in England.
In May of 2012, Norwich was named England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. I guess that comes from the quality of the writing about sports teams in the city?
I gather Norwich dates to the times of the Roman’s.
I gather Norwich City football defenders first learned to tackle by taking on horses pulling chariots in the times of the Romans. It is unclear whether Norwich City still uses horses pulling chariots for tackling dummies today.
Just in.
GIROUX WINS PUSKAS AWARD For best goal in 2017
This is after not even winning goal of the month in EPL.
What a slap on the face of the FA. A very dirty slap indeed.
Congratulations to Olivier Giroud for winning the Puskas award for best goal in 2017 .Not bad for an alleged “donkey” and “lampost”!
Sorry, I meant GIROUD.
Whatever be the case, the reserve team of Aresnal will beat Norwich City in this Carabao Cup match taking place tomorrow night’s at the Emirate Stadium where the Canaries are expected to play their own version of World Cup final game.
In view of this World Cup final match which Norwich City are suspected will play against Arsenal, the Gunners should be careful not to take beating them for granted and thereby become complacent in their game against them. Rather, they should carry the game to the Canaries unabated pressing them high and hard with relentless vigour until they breach their back of the net again, again and again three times during the game to leave them returned home conceding 3 goals to Arsenal without them scoring any goal against Arsenal at the final whistle ending the match
My 3-4-2-1 Arsenal reserve team starting XI and 7 on the bench others for this match are as follows:
Macey
Debuchy Holding ElNeny
Nelson Niles Coquelin Willock
Walcott Giroud Wilshere.
What a starting XI!
Bench:
Cech Dragomir McGuane Sheaf Nketiah Dasilva Akpom.
Andy Carroll I gather won the the winning goal for that month, according to some media types.
‘This is after not even winning goal of the month in EPL’
That’s right. I think they chose the offside version by Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Still it was in MOTD top goals list.
I was at that bloody match in ’92. I think we had a mural covering the North Bank.
In 1992 we were 2=0 ahead before losing 2-4.
BBC TV news reports Ronaldo winning FIFA Player of year award, but no mention of only English based player to win an award. Must be their policy to avoid anything positive about Arsenal.
If Roony or Kane had won the award or some other English player, the hype would be inescapable and we would not be told or only in passing that Ronaldo was player of the year.
Giroud’s award is another triumph for ‘Frenchman who doesn’t know what he is doing.’
You know the one who wont ‘splash the cash’
Who buys unknowns and has patience with them.
Who have football skill but lack ‘thug’ skill.
Now let me think what is his name? Naer I can’t think of it.
You say his name is ‘Arsene’
Arsene who?
I wouldn’t be so harsh on Kane. He is one of the best non-English speaking strikers in the league.
‘I wouldn’t be so harsh on Kane. He is one of the best non-English speaking strikers in the league.’
Not cool Josif, although in the godforsaken part of the world you originate from it’s probably the norm.
John L
But BBC do credit Giroud’s goal of the year in their online football news.
Josif – “I wouldn’t be so harsh on Kane. He is one of the best non-English speaking strikers in the league.” Brilliant hahaha.
Jax – What difference does his nationality make? Why do people like you always bring that up? It just stinks of xenophobia.
@Jax
Be careful or I will come to your country without any money, contacts and advanced knowledge of English and still manage to steal your job. 🙂
@Jammy
Xenophobia? In “post-Brexit-they-don’t-like-it-up-’em”-England?” Impossible!
Jammy
I’m sure he appreciates your support. Keep it up.
Josif – sometimes humour slips by the idiots who believe they are superior having achieved nothing.