Norwich 0 Chelsea 0 - Ten Things We Now Know

Norwich have come on leaps and bounds since Stamford Bridge in August
1. It's always hard to find 10 interesting points to make about a game that's been watched live on TV around the world, and even more so when a game ends 0-0, but first and foremost, what a huge transformation from when we faced Chelsea in August.
We probably played better at Stamford Bridge, but so much has changed in five months with Lambert's team, not in terms of personnel, but mainly in terms of confidence.
It's amazing to think Chris Martin started that game back in August and now finds himself on loan at Crystal Palace. Manager Paul Lambert has instilled something in the side that means a team like Chelsea can turn up at Carrow Road and City can fairly comfortably take a point off them.

Morison has to get stuck if he's to really win the fans over.
2.Chelsea away was the first away match I went to this season and as such they've now featured in two of these post-match analysis bits. So there's plenty of oppportunity to track City's progress since August. Back then I wrote of Steve Morison: "He's strong and physical, but I just can't see him scoring and I don't have the same faith when he's on the ball as I do with Holty."
Morison's impressed at times since then but against Chelsea at Carrow Road I thought he was far from at his best. Sometimes the communication between him and Holt breaks down and usually it's Morison who is at fault. Sometimes he just doesn't seem to want to chase lost opportunities, although it was telling that everytime Petr Cech had the ball on the deck, Morison steamed in towards him. It's a tactic that Holt and Simeon Jackson seem to use a lot and I think if we saw more of Morison getting really stuck in he'd win a lot more favour. For me he reminds me of Dimitar Berbatov, in that he's never going to run around like a headless chicken, which some people, myself included, could interpret for laziness.

Chelsea's stars once again failed to impress.
3. Back in August I wrote: "Chelsea were really poor. In particular Drogba, Torres, Lampard and Terry were shockingly average and substitutes Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku did more to impress in their brief time on the pitch." Well, not much has changed it seems, although Mata is now a first choice starter and certainly the most creative player in their side. Mata's a little like David Silva and Luka Modric for me. The big teams seem to have this kind of small player in their sides, a tad like our Wes. But as for the big names, they once again failed to show up.

Love him or hate him, you can't take your eyes off of David Luiz
4. Chelsea went four years without a home league defeat in the mid-to-late 2000s and that was largely down to a solid defence. Cech looks far from full of confidence when the ball comes back to him and the four in front of him have been error-prone all season.
It was a shame we didn't get to see Gary Cahill in action but we did get to see a first at Carrow Road -  a player appearing in blue tights!
I though David Luiz was excellent and didn't put a foot wrong against Norwich. He sometimes struggles against better teams, but I rate him. It's certainly never dull when he's in the Chelsea side, even though, as Gary Neville famously said, he defends like a 10-year-old playing on his PlayStation.

I'm starting to get annoyed by my fellow fans.
5. There were predictable boos when John Terry came out and the predictable chanting of "One racist captain" and "John Terry, you know what you did". I cringed throughout.
Fellow fans are getting to me at the moment in my Jarrold Stand seat, from the stupid Terry chanting to the continual slagging off of the referee to the continual slagging off of any decision that involves Grant Holt not winning a free-kick when he's rolling around on the floor.
Far be it for me to appear like a snob or a football anorak but it doesn't half amaze me when people turn to their mates and say "Who?" when a substitute comes on. When that sub is Florent Malouda, who has 73 French caps and has played in a World Cup final, I sometimes wonder just how little knowledge other football fans have.

Maybe we need to cross the ball in the box more.
6. Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa had fairly quiet games on Saturday and that was all down to the lack of width we found. Andrew Surman and Anthony Pilkington saw plenty of the ball early on but didn't really try and play the ball out wide. It struck me just how rarely City cross the ball in the box, they tend to work it back to the edge of the box rather than fizz balls in at head height from out wide in open play, which when you consider the aerial options up front we have and the fact we've scored so many headed goals is surprising.

Zak Whitbread was simply awesome.
7. The sponsors got it right, Zak Whitbread was the man of the match and he was just superb from start to finish. Some awesome headed clearances and he had the measure of Fernando Torres all afternoon.

First clean sheet of the season actually felt like a win.
8. Way-hey, my Fantasy Football goalkeeper John Ruddy picked up his first clean sheet of the season and that was the main reason for the loud cheers from all around Carrow Road as the game finished. Ruddy was never really troubled by Chelsea's long-range shooting, but a save in each half really impressed me.
His second half save from Mata at the near post on the hour was crucial, but save of the match had to be the fingertip save from Torres' toe poke in the first half.
I had the perfect view of that shot and it was definitely going in.

Torres just needs to start shooting on sight.
9. Fernando Torres missed possibly his second worst sitter in a Chelsea shirt when he flicked the ball past John Ruddy's left hand post and into the cinders in front of the N&P Stand.
That miss will grab the headlines but it's part of a confusing balance for Torres - on one hand he has a really poor return on the pitch, on the other, he's continually praised by his manager and fellow players for the shift he puts in. They usually cite his all round team play and I watched him closely on Saturday.
For me, he tried to do too much, a bit like Barcelona when they try and walk the ball into the net. The old Torres at Atletico Madrid would shoot on sight and that was what made Liverpool fork out all that cash for him in the summer of 2007.
On Saturday when he picked the ball up he first tried to beat a man to create space and usually ended up losing the ball. His instinct doesn't seem to be to head for goal anymore, rather to find space and set up a team mate. That's fine by most players' standards, but when you're a £50m striker and you've only scored three goals all season, you should be looking to shoot on sight from anywhere around the box.

So if Torres is so poor, why don't we see more of Romelu Lukaku?
10. I am a tad biased having seen him play for Anderlecht a couple of times on trips to Brussels, but big powerful Lukaku did more in 15 minutes than Torres did. His bullish run down the right which ended with a shot into the side netting showed his eye for goal. I hope Chelsea don't loan him out in January, he's good enough to be starting week in, week out.

Everton 1 Norwich 1 - Ten Things We Now Know

1 Great to finally get to Goodison, 18 years late

Norwich in their now traditional huddle

Poor weather in the North West on Thursday and Friday almost put paid to my first trip to Goodison, but getting there was vital in order to complete a bit of unfinished business. My first game was Norwich v Everton at Carrow Road in November 1984, a season in which The Toffees won the title and had a hand in relegating Norwich when they played a sub-strength team in their final game against Coventry.
Since then a clash between the two teams has been special to me and, back in September 1993 aged 18, I was desperate to go up to Goodison and watch the Premier League game between the teams.
My late pal Jake had just passed his driving test and the plan was to borrow his parents' car and shoot up to Liverpool for the day. Unfortunately his mum had other ideas and told him it was too far for a novice 18-year-old to drive. Worse still, the train was too expensive and Club Canary was full up.
Annoyed but not disheartened and being keen football fans we decided to go to a game on the spare Saturday and scoured Ceefax for somewhere closer to go. We ended up taking the shorter trip to Watford for their Division One clash with Sunderland. It was a dreadful game and ended 0-0. We left the ground for the drive back to Norwich and over the tannoy heard the almost unbelievable score of Everton 1 Norwich 5.

2 Goodison Park rivals Craven Cottage for a rare old bit of tradition in the Premier League.
I love Carrow Road and I love old grounds, but watching modern football is a big mix of grounds that need to be knocked down, grounds that have been knocked down and replaced by ubiquitous bowls, grounds that are a shadow of their former selves and the four blue shoeboxes that make up Loftus Road. Goodison Park is a bit tatty in places, but has a lovely old feel to it, as do the club themselves. After walking across the famous Stanley Park and getting inside the ground it's great sitting in a stand with a wooden floor (I thought they'd actually been banned!), great to see the church in the corner, great to hear the Z Cars theme, and great to see the Toffee Lady throwing sweets into the crowd. Only Craven Cottage has as much old time appeal as Goodison among Premier League grounds I have visited.

3 Tradition aside, Everton are really underperforming this season.

This was my first trip to Goodison

'In Moyes We Trust' read a sign inside the ground. There's a similar sign at The Emirates Stadium and just like Arsenal fans started to doubt The Gunners' long-serving manager earlier this season there must be doubts creeping into Everton fans that perhaps David Moyes can't do much more for the club than he's done over the last seven odd years.
Moyes' Everton side has struggled this season - Tim Cahill hasn't scored for a year, Marouane Fellaini looks a better player than he is and Louis Saha just doesn't have the cutting edge up front. The Toffees top scorer is Apostolos Velios who has only started two games. Home defeats to Stoke and QPR this season plus  two points dropped against Norwich is a poor return for a club that should be beating teams like that on their own patch.

4 The stats didn't lie though, Everton were much the better side.
Everton had 15 shots on target to our one and had 13 corners to our none. Everton dominated everything in the game until City scored, did most of the pressing after that and, although City went close through Grant Holt again in the second half, it was all Everton. But, just like at Liverpool in October, we kept our shape and dug in. Even at half time, myself and my mate Gordon were both convinced Everton would win the game. This game will definitely be classed in the category of fortunate points on the road.

5 When will Grant Holt earn praise from the Match of the Day pundits?

Lovely old tradition - The Toffee Lady hands out sweets

Sitting in the corner of the upper tier of the Bullens Road stand, Grant Holt's goal was about 100 yards away from me and all I really saw of it was the ball slowly creep into the corner of the net.
Later on the telly I took in its full beauty - what a finish!
Yet despite this, Mark Lawrenson described him as a 'battering ram', said the goal was all about Jonny Heitinga's poor defending and found it hard to give any praise to Holt. He's scored seven goals before Christmas, Morison has six. Between them they're only two goals off the totals of QPR and West Brom this season!
Aside from the goal, Holt's best moment was when he chased down a backpass, scared the living daylights out of Tim Howard and won a throw deep in Everton territory. I can't believe a player like Fernando Torres would try that. Holt plays just like he did when we were in League One - and look at the results!

6 I was surprised by the amount of empty seats in the City end.
I sat upstairs and, while the lower tier seemed pretty full, there must have been space for another 700 fans up stairs. Perhaps as it's near Christmas and there's a game at Wolves on Tuesday, but I thought we'd have taken more than we did. Tickets for away games have actually been reasonably easy to come by this season, but when the cost of petrol, ticket, parking and a night in a Travelodge comes to around £100 each, it's easy to see why City fans stayed away.

7 Zak Whitbread and Russell Martin were superb.

Everton had 13 corners, we had none

Plenty was made last week about Newcastle's lack of central defenders, but our central defence at Everton was made up of a right back and a centre half who has been mainly injured this season. Whitbread's played well for the last two games (forget his involvement in Demba Ba's second goal, that was Andrew Surman's fault) and along with Martin they were really strong against Everton's attackers. With Elliot Ward on the way back and hopefully Daniel Ayala too, we've suddenly got some options at the back.

8 But John Ruddy was the man of the match by a mile.
What is it about Ruddy and Merseyside? He was brilliant at Anfield and had the same kind of performance against Everton. Some brilliant saves, the one in the first half where he rushed out at Fellaini's feet was great, as was the parry from Royston Drenthe's curling, swirling missile late on. Great keeper and on the weekend that it was announced no Euro 2012 players would figure in the British Olympic football team, that must throw down the possibility that Ruddy could be in the Olympic team next summer.

Holt and Jagielka get a talking to

9 Surman watch: Still not much going on.
I thought Surman was awful against Newcastle, yet he kept his place against Everton. He got stuck in a bit more, but still looks the one player under-performing for me. David Fox had a good game and Andrew Crofts saw a lot of the ball, but Surman? I just don't get it. Come on Andrew, prove me wrong.

10 Proud to say I was there the day Zlatan made his Premier League bow.
Talk in the car on the way up between myself and Gordon was about the ins and outs at Carrow Road in January and the name of Zlatan Wilbrahamovic cropped up. I pointed out that he'd been named on the bench for the past few games and that at some point he would have to make his top flight debut. Sure enough, with City 1-0 up and with ten minutes later, he came on for Steve Morison. He looked a tad thinner than the last time I saw him play, and sure enough, within two minutes, we'd conceded a goal!
It wasn't his fault, but surely we need to boost our options from the bench in January. Other Premier League clubs bring on seasoned internationals to change games - surely we can't go on much longer bringing on players like Wilbraham?

Norwich 4 Newcastle 2 – Ten Things We Now Know

1 Martin Atkinson and Mike Mullarkey had a shocker

I’m not a big fan of slagging off referees after games, it’s often a bit of a cheap shot, but what do you say about Martin Atkinson today and his two assistants today?

In the first half they seemed to miss just about everything. The most obvious incident was the handball from Davide Santon after Kyle Naughton’s cross midway through the first half, which the whole crowd and most of the players saw, but Atkinson and linesman Mike Mullarkey, of 2010 World Cup final fame, didn’t.

World Cups and 4-2 scorelines bring to mind Geoff Hurst’s debatable third goal which crashed off the crossbar in 1966 and came straight down. It’s the same with a handball off the body – if the ball hits the chest or shoulder it bounces out, like when it hits the post. If it hits the underside of the arm it bounces down.

It bounced down from Santon and should have been a penalty.

Later in the second half was the Gutierrez challenge on Naughton, which Atkinson had his back to and Mullarkey didn’t seem interested in.

Before the first goal the sub-standard refereeing threatened to overshadow the game – and it was with a huge slice of irony that Mullarkey decided that Tim Krul had taken the ball over the line to give City a corner, from which Wes Hoolahan scored.

2 We need to talk about Surman

Norwich’s fantastic all round performance against Newcastle was superb and each member of the team did a brilliant job. Err, except one.

Andrew Surman was simply not at the races today, making mistake after mistake in the first half, not tracking back, not getting forward, not knowing where the ball was and not really sure what role he was supposed to play. He reminded me of an awkward man in a lingerie shop looking for a present for his wife late on Christmas Eve.

What are you meant to do when a player has a stinker like Surman? Of course you have to support him, but he was the sole weak link in the City side – and the reaction when he went off from the Carrow Road faithful to be replaced by Bradley Johnson was telling.

Before he went off Surman almost turned the game into Newcastle’s hands on his own – while Zak Whitbread was ultimately dispossessed for Demba Ba’s second goal, it was Surman’s failure to play a simple pass to Marc Tierney that put the American in trouble.

3 Marc Tierney and Gabriel Obertan are two players going in the opposite direction

Tierney’s been superb this season – incredible to think he’s only been at Carrow Road for 11 months - and only Theo Walcott has really shown him up in the top flight this season.

Newcastle’s Obertan is a mysterious player – wafer thin, quick feet and the potential to be an outstanding footballer – but for a Premier League player he has a shocking output in terms of assists and goals.

Both Tierney and Obertan moved clubs this year and are now Premier League regulars, but while Obertan seems to have little influence on games, Tierney is the opposite.

Obertan did one good thing today when he burst through the Norwich defence in the chance that lead to Ba clipping the bar with his right foot volley early in the second half, but apart from that he didn’t get any change out of Tierney who just gets better and better.

Always keen to get forward, keen and competitive, Tierney’s audacious back flick by the Jarrold Stand touchline towards the end, was a cute little touch too.

4 Demba Ba’s first goal was sheer class.

Some things you see at a football ground are missed first time. I was sure that Ba was offside for that first goal, but watching the replay at half-time in the Jarrold Stand concourse I saw for the first time the quality of Yohan Cabaye’s through ball which was as beautiful a chipped pass as David Fox’s Premier League-clinching ball for Simeon Jackson's goal at Fratton Park last May.

Ba’s neat two touches put the ball in the net, but that Cabaye pass was a stunner.

5 The Magpies seem to be have been punching about their weight

A relatively kind run of Premier League fixtures through the autumn has finally ended for Alan Pardew’s men. Throw in some choice injuries and, voila, they start to struggle.

Newcastle’s back four today lacked any centre backs and boy did they find it hard to deal with anything that came into the box. Eleven goals conceded in four games and two red cards as well isn’t good – and while they’ve got a couple of home games against Swansea and West Brom coming up, I think Newcastle and Norwich are not only alphabetical bedfellows in the Premier League, but two teams of about the same standard.

6 Holt and Morison’s goals were Christmas gifts

Well, what do you get if you have players like the two City strikers in the box and give them three free chances to score? Before the game I thought Krul could be a tough keeper to crack – he’s looked so good in the top flight this season – but just like when Swansea’s Michel Vorm came to Carrow Road in October, we suddenly made him look half the man he is. Seven goals past form keepers Krul and Vorm this season is a superb output.

7 Who said Grant Holt couldn’t score in the Premier League?

Before the start of the season I was looking at odds on City players and was astonished to see a quote on the number of goals scored by Holt. The bookies were 10/11 on Holt scoring under or over 5.5 for the season. That was how they rated him – a player who was probably going to score around six goals this season. Given that Holt has started fewer games than many of us thought this campaign – the fact he’s hit half a dozen goals before mid-December is a cracking achievement.

The two goals against Newcastle were unusual in that they weren’t celebrated in the usual way – no tattoo kissing – I guess the Carlisle-born striker has a soft spot for the Magpies?

8 Morison has found his feet and looks every bit the Premier League striker.

I had my doubts in August whether Morison was the real deal – but boy has he improved. If everything Andrew Surman did turned to tripe, everything Morison did came off. His first touch belies his image as a lone, shaven-headed target man – he’s far more than that. He seems to win every header he goes up for, can bring the ball down quickly and knows what to do in every situation. Great to see both Morison and Holt playing together against a team like Newcastle. The Magpies were there for the taking and praise to Paul Lambert who went for the jugular today.

9 Four goals at home in the top flight – remember when that last happened?

Yes it was seven long years ago next month – January 22 2005 when City last hit four at home in the top flight and it was the classic game against Middlesbrough - a game so long ago that Gareth Southgate and Ray Parlour were in the Boro side and Stewart Downing was actually quite good.

The fact that three of City’s goals came in the last ten minutes as they spectacularly clawed back a 4-1 deficit tells you everything about the difference between that Premier League season and this one.

10 No idea what to expect from the next two games

Newcastle at home was the first of three games I thought we could either win or lose and the same goes for the next two games. Everton and Wolves away are big, big games. Six points is possible, as is none. With Spurs and Fulham at home to end December, I’ve no idea what to expect from the remaining four games this year.

Five points would be a fantastic return – but I’ve got a sneaky feeling we’ll beat Everton next Saturday, Fulham and Wolves are beatable and as for Tottenham under the Carrow Road floodlights… you never know!

Norwich 2 QPR 1 - Ten Things We Now Know

1 That was probably the most important game we’ll win this autumn
Just like beating Swansea in October at home was vital, beating fellow promoted side QPR in the last game of November was absolutely vital. Whatever happens this season we now know that we won’t lose out to our fellow promoted sides in terms of points which is key if we hope to stay up.
Both the wins against Swansea and QPR were hardly convincing but a win is a win, and given that Rangers won at Stoke last week, it kind of puts are hard-fought 2-1 win into perspective.
Despite beating both Swansea and QPR at home, I’ve got little hope that we’ll do anything other than lose to both sides when we face them on their own patch

2 Lambert mixed it up, but the new faces did little to suggest they’ll stick around
Big news today – a different starting line up for the first time in ages. Out went Kyle Naughton, David Fox and Wes Hoolahan with Ritchie De Laet, Andrew Surman and Simeon Jackson coming in.
While all three players did little wrong, neither of the trio did anything to suggest they’ll be starting any games in any Premier League any time soon.
I think it’s good that these three got a game, but they are squad players, not starters. De Laet didn’t have any real presence to his game, didn’t get forward and didn’t really get involved. Surman seemed hesitant too, he had a couple of chances to do things but seemed a little off the pace and then there was Jackson.
I really want to like him and really want him to have the same kind of impact he had towards the end of last season, but he still has the first touch from his Gillingham days, which may be OK against Shrewsbury, but won’t cut the mustard against Man City.

3 Holt and Morison are starting to get selfish
I’ve touched on this before, that when Holt invariably comes off the bench for the last 20-25 minutes, there seems to be a bit of a rivalry between himself and Morison.
Today, it was perhaps the best example. Morison has hit four goals this season and Holt had three before he came on. Holt soon scored what turned out to be the winner, putting him on four too. But after that, Morison had a chance when it would have been easier to pass to Holt and vice versa. When Holt didn’t pass to Morison there was a heated exchange between the two. I noted that they seem to make up at the final whistle, but it was definitely noticeable that there is big competition between the two of them up front.

4 We’ve started sacrificing creativity and flair in midfield
Against Swansea six weeks ago we started with a midfield that included David Fox, Wes Hoolahan, Elliott Bennett – all creative players in their own right. Against Swansea, neither of that trio started, with Jackson replacing Hoolahan and midfield hod-carriers Andrew Crofts and Andrew Surman starting. Along with Bradley Johnson, this trio has little creativity about them and turned the game into a Championship-style kickabout.

5 QPR were really poor
That’s not to say we were much better, but I was massively disappointed by Rangers. That win against Stoke last week was awesome, and they’ve recently put in some great performances. Today they offered little in midfield and really missed Joey Barton. The good news for Norwich is that there are certainly three teams worse than us in this division. I'm not sure QPR are bad enough to go down, but they didn't seem to have much about them today.

6 Mark Clattenburg didn’t do much wrong

Mark Clattenburg, love him or hate him, but I think he had a decent game today. Dozens of fans around me in the middle of the Jarrold Stand were beside themselves with rage everytime he stopped play, calling him a joke. I just don't get the beef with Clattenburg. Sure he's a matter-of-fact referee which I can see gets on people's nerves, but for me he's one of the best in the top flight.

7 QPR need to shore up their defence

Steve Morison was simply all over Danny Gabbidon in this game and Anton Ferdinand was also pretty anonymous. Against better teams, they will get hammered this season. If Fulham and Bolton can put a combined ten goals past them in two games, then they need to get it sorted. Today Norwich were pretty poor and scored two weak goals that any manager would hate to see his team concede

8 Norwich's defence is showing serious signs of creaking too

First the good news: Daniel Ayala and Zak Whitbread are on their way back and fingers crossed Elliott Ward isn't too far off as well. City's defence is getting weaker and weaker. While Russell Martin made up for his Arsenal error, I'm getting seriously concerned about Leon Barnett, have no confidence in Ritchie De Laet and am worried that Marc Tierney suddenly looks like he's lacking in confidence.

Barnett in particular seems to have taken a big nosedive in form over the last month and in a month when we face Spurs, Newcastle and Man City, he will get found out.

9 Shaun Wright-Phillips looks a shadow of his old self

Six-and-a-half years since Wright-Phillips last played at Carrow Road in the 'Let's be 'Avin You' game for Manchester City and boy has he gone backwards. While brother Bradley has found his level in League One, SWP seems to have lost everything that made him a dynamic Premier League player a decade ago.

The Rangers Number 32 turned 30 last month and should be, excuse the pun, at the height of his game. I personally think he'll be playing in the Championship next season.

10 It's the end of November and four players have really stood out this season

It's the spine of our team who I've been most impressed with. Quite simply it's John Ruddy, Russell Martin, Wes Hoolahan and Steve Morison who've stood out this season, and they're the four players that must start every game. Bringing Grant Holt on as a sub for the last 20 minutes does have an impact. Not starting Wes Hoolahan does nothing but hand an advantage to our opponents.

Norwich 3 Blackburn 3 - Then Things We Now Know

1 It was a throwback to 2004/05
We go to Old Trafford and lose to two late goals, conceede one at Anfield and then ship three at home to Blackburn - yes this was a real throwback to those dark days of winter 2004/05 when we couldn't defend to save our lives. Chris Samba's goal was probably the worst we've conceeded this season, quite how he had so much space in the box to nod home a cross that nobody was anywhere near intercepting I don't know

2 Good to see Holt and Morison playing together for once
Steve Morison is our first choice striker and Grant Holt comes off the bench when we need him. That's been the story of October 2011 up front for Norwich City but today we actually had them both up front for the last 28 minutes. Credit to Paul Lambert, he knows when to bring Holty on, but there can't be a City fan in the land who thinks we'd benefit so much more from playing two up front. For some reason in the modern game, two big players can't play together - or so that's the current thinking. Surely City should start with two up front against teams like Blackburn at home, rather than waiting until we're two goals behind

3 Arsenal could help themselves to a hatful against us in our next home game
Watching this game a few minutes after catching the end of Arsenal's awesome 5-3 win over Chelsea made me shudder to think of the damage that Arsene Wenger's side can cause on November 19 in City's next home game. Of all the teams in the top flight capable of giving is a good old thrashing, it's Arsenal who cause the biggest danger. We couldn't handle Yakubu at times today and with Robin van Persie playing out of his skin right now, it could be six or seven. Theo Walcott will give Marc Tierney plenty to think about and then there's Ramsey, Arshavin, Gervinho....

4 Elliott Bennett continues to do his best work in defence
I thought Bennett would be a winger in the mould of Dale Gordon when we signed him, but apart from setting up Leon Barnett's goal against Sunderland, his best work in front of the home defence has been as a kind of deep-lying wing back ahead of Kyle Naughton on the right. After his stupendous tackle against Leon Britton against Swansea, he followed it up with another couple of great tackles again today. He adds plenty of stability on that side, but the jury's out on whether he actually possesses a major goal threat.

5 Physically massive Blackburn should be far more solid
I've seen Blackburn on the telly, but it's not until you see them in the flesh that you realise just how big the side is. The Carrow Road crowd seemed to bust into spontaneous laughter early on when Wes Hoolahan went up for a header against the man mountain that is Samba, he is huge. Throw in 6ft 5ins Steven Nzonzi and the size of both Yakubu and sub David Dunn's arse in those not-so-flattering white shorts and you've got a physically huge side. For some reason though, Blackburn don't have the same fear factor as someone like Stoke which is surprising.

6 Junior Hoillett scored one of the goals of the season on Saturday
Maybe it was the sun in John Ruddy's eyes, maybe it was the fact half time was fast approaching but the neat run and finish from Canadian Hoillett was far and away the best goal Carrow Road has seen so far in the Premier League. Hoillett was the best player on the pitch today and although Steve Morison’s goal was well-taken, Hoilett’s goal was the standout for me. Don’t be surprised to see it in Match of the Day’s goals of the season come May.

7 We finally got a bit of luck back from those first four games.
Remember how unlucky the start of the season was? We let in a late goal at home to Stoke, had Leon Barnett and John Ruddy sent off, gave away harsh penalties, were unlucky not to get something from Chelsea and should have had a penalty against West Brom. That bad luck seemed to have been bottled up and turned into some kind of magic potion that was sprinkled around the Barclay goal for the last ten minutes. Both Bradley Johnson’s goal and the penalty decision relied on huge slices of luck.

8. Great to see a drop ball contested for once
Before the goals started to fly in the best moment of the first half for me was the drop ball incident close to the touchline in the corner of the City stand/N&P stand. City were on the attack and after the ball had been cleared from the box Blackburn skipper Samba went down in the box on his own and stayed there. With the ball about to be sent back in from the City right, the ref stopped play. When it restarted with a dropball Steve Morison was clearly urged by the Blackburn defence to knock the ball back to Paul Robinson, instead he urged his fellow City players forward to contest the dropball. It wish this happened more in football these days, especially when a team who seemed to fall at the slightest knock tried to use the situation to their advantage.

9. Never, ever leave a game early at Carrow Road
We saw it last season and while this season all you’ve missed if you’ve left ten minutes early is Kenwyne Jones goal and James Vaughan’ssmack in the face, those early leavers missed a trick today. Two women who sit near me decided to up sticks a minute before Bradley Johnson’s goal which was just crazy – there was always going to be four or five minutes added time. I don’t want to be sexist but these two women continue to baffle me – they sit and chat through the whole game and smirked in a Carry On-style manner when Blackburn sub David Goodwillie came on. Best of all though, the subject of the 12.45pm kick off against Arsenal in our next home game cropped up with one asking the other what time the game would finish. They couldn’t work it out.

10. It’s the end of October and we’re sitting pretty in eighth place.
Premier League – we’re having a laught, right?

Norwich 3 Swansea 1 - Ten things we now know

1 That was a good advert for er, Championship football

When two promoted teams clash in the top flight they’re always greeted by condescending niceties from the national media and the same was true of Saturday. Great to have Football Focus doing their entire show from a gloriously sunny Carrow Road and great that both City and Swansea, the two most attractive sides in the Championsip have lost none of their swagger.
This was a game between the sides sitting in 9^th and 10^th in the top flight and fantastic entertainment but it wasn’t really a typical Premier League game. Both sides had so much time on the ball, both defences stood off and both sides made plenty of silly mistakes.

2 The photo on the programme cover was possibly the ugliest I’ve ever seen

Blimey! That’s some photo! A grimacing Phil Jones going for the ball with a gurning Steve Morison on the cover of Saturday’s programme put me off my pre-match sweets! Seriously though, a word on the quality of our matchday programme – it’s really good this year and actually a really good read. They got it spot on this week with profiles of goalscorers Russell Martin and a Q&A with Anthony Pilkington – and if you’ve got the programme – check out who asked the first question!

3 Pilks didn’t take long to get over his Old Trafford miss

I touched on this in the hours after the Old Trafford performance and thought it wouldn’t be too long before he rectified his miss against Manchester United – and wow, it was under a minute! A brilliantly taken goal, that as Alan Shearer said on Match of the Day probably came to him so quickly that he had no time than to do anything else than just rely on his instinct and smash it pass Michel Vorm. Great goal and it certainly got Carrow Road rocking.

4 Elliott Bennett just shaded it as my man of the match

A couple of contenders today, Pilks for his brace and Morison too, but for me the best player in a City shirt was Elliott Bennett. I’ve not been massively impressed with him so far, he’s had flashes of brilliance, but on Saturday he really caught my eye. He seemed to spend most of the game as a right wing back and didn’t really get forward on the right in the same way that Pilks did on the left, but he was a key player against Swansea.
He set up the first goal with that deep cross that found Morison, he hit the bar with a similar cross later in the first half and kept the ball in play brilliantly in front of the Swansea fans when it seemed certain it would go out for a Swansea throw.
Best bit?
His stunning tackle on Leon Britton early in the second half. Britton burst away over the halfway line towards the Barclay and Bennett matched him stride for stride until leaping in from behind and winning the ball. Had he got it wrong he could have been sent off. But he didn’t and put in a superb tackle.

5 Morison and Holt – the gap is getting wider and wider

Let’s hear it for Morison – he got the man of the match in the ground and I can see why. He was brilliant against Swansea, everything he tried came off, his cushioned header set up the first goal, he was a constant threat to Swansea’s defence and had a couple of decent chances to score for himself, but only wayward shooting let him down.
He’s pretty quick for a big man and the contrast between him and Grant Holt, who replaced the Welshman when he picked up a second half knock was marked.
Holt had a decent shot that Michel Vorm parried and looked keen to prove a point, but the gap between Morison and Holt just seems to get bigger and bigger.
I feel for Holt, but Morison is now a certain starter for City each week and, with the first fifth of our Premier League season now over, he is our main striker.

6 David Fox had a stinker – especially in the first half

OK so it was his free-kick that Russell Martin headed home for an early 2-0 lead, but David Fox seemed well off the pace against Swansea, particularly early on. He seemed sluggish and off the pace to me and a couple of times appeared to not want to challenge for the ball. I realise that Bradley Johnson has been drafted in as our midfield muscle as a compliment to Fox, but at times on Saturday, Fox was chasing shadows while Johnson was chasing players.

7 Marc Tierney - give him the ball and things happen

I’ve said in the past couple of columns when City have played at Carrow Road this season that Tierney going forward is a brilliant outlet and yet again he was involved in a City goal. Last season we had Russell Martin and Tierney bombing down each flank, yesterday, with Martin playing on the left side of the central defence partnership with Leon Barnett, we had a brilliant break in the second half that saw Martin and Tierney both head down the left. Martin’s pass to Tierney won City a corner from which we scored our third. Two of the last four City goals have involved Tierney and we have to use him down the left when he gets past the half way line

8 Swansea have enough about them to survive

Going forward I was impressed with the Swans, even though they didn’t give John Ruddy much to do. Nathan Dyer and Scott Sinclair are great players to have in your side away from home where Swansea have struggled this season, largely due to the quality of teams they’ve faced. Sinclair’s involvement in the first goal was excellent, cutting between two City players, going down in the box but still having the nous to flick the ball into the danger area. Britton is a class player too, a little bit like Wes Hoolahan, in that in doesn’t seem to get forward much, but is the player the Swans players look to when they want to get things doing. Ashley Williams is a powerful centre half and Vorm, although he had a poor start, looks like a decent keeper. Perhaps they just need a couple of fast full backs like City!

9 Danny Graham looks like the real deal

He shined in Watford’s win that started last season at Carrow Road and got another on Saturday, but goals aside, Graham looks a much better player than last year. He’s exactly the sort of striker I think City need. Strong, mobile and quick, he’d have a field day partnered with Morison.

10 We are really enjoying this Premier League season

Remember how low you felt on the afternoon of September 11 after defeat at Carrow Road by West Brom. Two points from the first four points and we were in danger of hitting the bottom of the table had we lost at Bolton. We’ve taken 9 points from 12 since then and put in a unanimously creditable performance at Old Trafford – who’d a thought it would be this good?

Manchester United 2 Norwich City 0: Ten Things We Now Know

1 Old Trafford – WOW!
This was my first visit to the home of Manchester United in 19 years and wow, the place has changed. Only Ryan Giggs remains from the last time I came, there was no Stretford end then and the stand at the other end is now twice as big.
I went to the game with my mate Mike, a big United fan, who I’ve not seen for well over a decade and it was great to chew the cud during the game, even if I sat in the United end high up behind the goal in the East Stand.

2 For a massive ground, Old Trafford is pretty quiet.
Maybe it was a hangover from the Basel game in the Champions League, but the United crowd were so, so quiet, only coming alive in the last 20 minutes when Anderson and Danny Welbeck scored their goals. The City fans were in fine voice, however, and did themselves proud with the predictable ditty: “We’re Norwich City, we’ve come for our scarves.”

3 Norwich didn’t score but we’ve come on leaps and bounds since Chelsea.
Games against Bolton and Wigan on the road are one thing, games against Chelsea and Man United are another. The only game we can really compare this one to was Chelsea away five weeks ago, and even though we didn’t score, we were so much more organised. The back four were immense, five across the middle worked and we created plenty of chances. Away at Old Trafford, what more can you ask? As I said to Mike in the first half, we were more than a match for United, we just needed two strikers up front to give us a chance of winning the game!
But considering this was pretty much the biggest games in the careers of most of the Norwich players, we put in a great performance.

4 Steve Morison had his best game in a Norwich shirt.
I touched on how improved he looked against Sunderland on Monday, today his performance seemed to go up a notch. It’s never easy being in a team like Norwich when you visit the Champions and, as the lone man up front, it was always going to be a long hot afternoon for the Welsh international. But, to his credit, he had a good game. In the first half he didn’t get that much joy out of the United back four, he would have had a tap in had Elliott Bennett found him early on, but in the second he was awesome. Time and time again he found space, won the ball for fun and should have done better to set up Wes Hoolahan in the second half.

5 Marc Tierney and Bradley Johnson are the heartbeat of this Norwich team.
Boy oh boy did Tierney and Johnson get stuck in today. Both were awesome and, aside from perhaps Bennett who had a great game, they were my star performers. Sitting in with the United fans gave me a renewed perspective of the impact of Tierney – the chap behind me was consistently moaning about “That fookin’ number 23”. He was everywhere at Old Trafford, getting forward, defending with finesse and keeping Wayne Rooney at bay. Johnson too was great, sitting with David Fox in front of the back four. Last time he played at Old Trafford for Leeds he was a winner, and today, he was unlucky not to have left the ground with something too.

6 Anthony Pilkington’s miss was a massive chance, but he’ll get over it.
My first thoughts after watching Pilkington’s missed chance on 65 minutes was the famous Gordon Smith chance to win the 1983 FA Cup final for Brighton against United. It wasn’t quite in the same league as that, or indeed Fernando Torres’ chance against United last month.
But Pilks will certainly know he should have scored after Johnson’s through ball sent him through and Antonio Valencia made a hash of things.
He did everything right apart and from hit the back of the net, but the fact he had the pace and power to get into that position in the first place was great. Pilks has taken to the Premier League with ease and looks really comfortable out there on the left. It won’t be long before he scores his second top flight goal – I reckon it will come against Swansea in two weeks.

7 Jonny Evans and Phil Jones are poles apart.
United’s two central defenders are currently standing in for Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic and while Jones just seems to get better and better, Evans was dreadful today.
Evans was ‘done’ by Steve Morison on a number of occasions, particularly the chance he should have squared to Hoolahan and the reason that ball never came across was down to Jones.

It was Jones again who snuffed out the Bennett cross that Morison could have tapped in to an unguarded net. Evans had little confidence and if he can’t keep someone like Morison in his pocket, god knows how he’ll get on against the more illustrious strikers in the Premier League. Jones, on the other hand, is a really exciting prospect and has a natural desire to steam forward at any opportunity.

8 Stuart Atwell actually had a good game.
Norwich’s first game with the controversial Mr Atwell in the top flight and when I saw his name on the programme I was worried there would be a big controversial moment. There was one in the first half when a United player went down and Marc Tierney put the ball into touch and it never came back to City, but apart from that, Atwell had a good game. There was only one booking in the game and it was never the sort of game that was going to get out of hand.

9 Rooney and Hernandez had an off day.
They were both doubts earlier in the week and even though both started, they were pretty ineffective. It can’t be easy trying to find space when there are eight, nine or ten yellow shirts blocking the path to goal and the two United strikers seemed pretty frustrated. When you think that five weeks ago Arsenal conceded eight, Norwich had plenty more about them at the back, and that obviously made it really tough for Rooney and Hernandez.

10. Boy was it hot!
Manchester. In October. In shorts! This was certainly one of those games I’ll be filing under those bizarre weather games in recent Norwich City history. Off the top of my head that list will include the Herenveen friendly in August 2000 when the players ran off the pitch to avoid a hail storm, Yeovil away in 2009 when the blinding sun meant I could hardly watch any of the first half and Huddersfield at home a few weeks after that when it was absolutely freezing.

Norwich 2 Sunderland 1 – Ten Things We Now Know

1 Carrow Road is as good a venue as any other for Monday Night Football
Tonight felt special from the minute I saw the Goodyear Blimp hovering over the city and to be the star turn on a Monday night was brilliant. The last time we played in front of the TV cameras in the top flight on a Monday night was February 2005 when Delia made herself infamous at half-time.
Let’s just take a step back and look at how far we’ve come. Two years last month we were 23^rd in League One, now we’re six games into the Premier League and in the top ten.

2 We don’t seem to know what to do when we get a throw in near the box
Marc Tierney, Kyle Naughton, Elliott Bennett take note – you don’t have the throwing ability of Rory Delap to hurl a bomb into the box. Particularly in the first half we didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on whenever we got a throw in deep into Sunderland territory. Other Premier League teams make a big fuss of throw ins and get results. I think its something we could really work on.

3 Leon Barnett was immense tonight
OK, so let’s not talk about that bizarre backpass in the last minute or so that gifted Sunderland a corner. Thankfully it lead to nothing and didn’t spoil the shift the former West Brom man put in. Nicklas Bendtner may have his critics, but he’s no mug – he’s been around a bit, is a starter for his country and didn’t get any change out of Leon tonight. The goal too was a special moment for one of the most likeable City players.

4 Our negative formation actually worked out pretty positive
I was a tad surprised that Paul Lambert kind of picked six defensive-minded players, two wingers, Wes and one striker to start a home game, but City were on top from the first minute. David Fox and Bradley Johnson snuffed out the progress of Craig Gardener and David Vaughan and Russell Martin did a great job marshalling the defence. I don’t think many City fans would have expected us to be starting Premier League games with one lone striker, especially at home, but credit to Paul Lambert, tonight it worked.

5 It must mean something that we’ve scored seven goals and they’ve all come from different players
Seven goals, seven different scorers. OK, so Lambert’s tinkered with his line-ups far more this season but the fact that as many goals have come from defenders as they have from strikers certainly tells us that while we’ve probably got issues up front, we’ve got a pretty adventurous defence – Barnett scored one, Tierney had an assist and Martin made a storming run into the box towards the end.

6 Steve Morison actually looks more of a handful than Grant Holt
A year ago the thought of a fit Grant Holt not starting a home game for Norwich would have been unthinkable but I’m finally coming around to Lambert’s thinking. I’m a big fan of Holt, but Morison tonight has finally impressed me in a City shirt. He seemed far more mobile, he made more runs and looked a bit of a handful. Certainly compared to the impact Grant Holt made when he came on, Morison looks like he could actually get into double figures for the season in the top flight whereas Holt just looked like he wanted to get himself involved in a scrap.

7 Wes Hoolahan CAN cut the mustard in the Premier League
This was the first home game in the top flight that Wes has started and the skipper for the night was immense. He was involved in everything as usual but tonight we saw him chase the ball when he didn’t have it more than ever. When Sunderland mounted a couple of minutes of pressure just before half-time, Hoolahan harried and hassled the Black Cats’ midfield to the extent that the play went from the edge of the City box all the way back to Titus Bramble at the back. He has to start every game possible when he’s fit.

8 City are really warming to the Premier League challenge
Sure, sometimes our defending is like a car crash waiting to happen, but let’s be honest, did we really expect us to start keeping clean sheet after clean sheet? I mean what would you rather – we were like Fulham and sitting on five points with five draws and a defeat? We’ve got eight points, we’ve drawn our first two, lost two and then won two on the spin against decent teams. Sunderland’s last game was a 4-0 romp over Stoke – a team who this weekend held Manchester United. Liverpool couldn’t beat Sunderland at home and we could. I know football doesn’t work like that but in the space of nine days we’ve gone from two points to eight. Another 30 in the remaining 32 games and we’ll probably stay up.

9 Sunderland seem to be a team full of individuals who may well struggle this season
The Black Cats midfield is awesome – Seb Larsson, Craig Gardner, Keiran Richardson and David Vaughan would be welcomed with open arms at Carrow Road if I was City boss but you’ve got to sense that all is not quite right at Sunderland.
They’ve not had the greatest of starts to the season and the loss of Asamoah Gyan could be crucial. I don’t think they’ve got much up front in Bendtner and as good as Connor Wickham is supposed to be, he didn’t make much of an impact tonight. I thought they’d be a good outside shot for a Europa League spot this season, but after tonight they seem to be full of individual talent, but without much cutting edge.

10 We can get a result at Old Trafford
We’ve got two wins on the bounce and Man United are suddenly picking up injuries ahead of Saturday’s big game. Throw in the fact that they’ve got a Champions League game this week too and suddenly a home win isn’t the banker it may seem. City will certainly go 4-5-1 again with Morison on his own upfront. I don’t think we’ll get a win, but I’ll tell you what – that 15/2 on the draw doesn’t half look tempting.

Norwich 0 WBA 1 – Ten things we now know

1 Perfectly observed minute’s silence was a credit to both sets of fans
Some heated debate on online message boards in the run up to the game over whether or not we should have held any kind of tribute to 9/11 and thankfully the debate is now over. Black armbands and a minute’s silence was spot on and perfectly observed. The game was played at the exact time of the attacks ten years ago and I think the club acted correctly in holding it.

2 Manchester clubs have shown the way forward
If Saturday was all about Manchester United and Manchester City’s effortless attacking football, Sunday wasn’t. Both Manchester clubs are going to battle out the title between them and the sheer pace, movement and energy the clubs have, particularly in the final third, is something the other 18 teams just can’t match.
United and City are playing football in a different league to the rest of the top six, let alone the rest of the league. Norwich are going to be torn apart when the two sides meet on October 1.

3 Soft referee decisions cost us yet again.
Did James Vaughan get a smack in the face? Was Steve Morison hauled down unfairly? Was Steven Reid’s stumble in the box a bit soft? Well yes to all three if you’re wearing Canary-shaded goggles. Four penalties in four games is a shocking statistic – whatever we need to do, we need to do fast. We’ve got to stop giving away needless free-kicks around the box, and of course committing one serious foul in the box per game. Perhaps in the Championship we were able to get away with being more physical.

4 Wes Hoolahan must start every game
He didn’t figure against Stoke and came on after an hour against West Brom but had more about him in 30 minutes than Andrew Surman did in 60. When Wes is on the pitch things happen and that’s why he is needed more than ever. Players around him know he wants the ball and his quick passing and quick feet are unique to the Paul Lambert’s squad. I hope he starts against Bolton.

5 Tierney and Naughton really impressed going forwards
OK so I sit in the Jarrold Stand half way between the River End goal and the half way line and see plenty of each full back in each half. The number of times I counted Marc Tierney in acres of space in the first half was probably at least five – and on each time the play went down the right. On the occasions that Andrew Surman did look up and spot the former Colchester man running down the flank things happened. We’ve got to use them both more often – just look at Gael Clichy, Micah Richards, Phil Jones and Patrice Evra. The top teams use full backs like wingers and we’ve got to start doing the same.

6 Andrew Surman had a poor game
I touched on Surman earlier and thought he was really poor against West Brom. I’d like to see him dropped to the bench for a bit.

7 Grant Holt and Chris Martin lack pace – so where’s Simeon?
Simeon Jackson is arguably out fastest striker but still Lambert insists on starting with Chris Martin alongside the hardly speedy Grant Holt. I think it’s time Jackson is given a run out, certainly in the last 20 minutes of a game to give the opposition something else to think about. Against West Brom Holt and Martin were replaced by Morison and Vaughan, and the result was just lots of high balls. With the pace of Tierney and Naughton on the flanks, Jackson and Hoolahan could be the quick answer to an attack that is clearly struggling for goals.

8 Ritchie De Laet seems to make one massive mistake every game
He gave away the penalty at Wigan, gifted Mata Chelsea’s third and was at fault for Peter Odemwingie’s opener. I am convinced he is Gary Doherty in disguise. Nice bit of skill before the goal with a pass on the instep of his foot and he was otherwise not too bad on Sunday. But he just need to cut out the silly mistakes.

9 Peter Odemwingie had us in his pocket all afternoon.
Shane Long seemed to spend most of his time pulling out wide, but Odemwingie had the run of the Norwich defence for the whole game. We backed off him every time and he probably should have had at least two more goals. Credit to Declan Rudd for the brilliant penalty save, but when you couple in Graeme Dorrans’ shot that hit the post and the other chances the Baggies had, I think the 1-0 away win was a more than fair reflection of the game. We probably had more possession and chances, but apart from the late Morison header and Bradley Johnson’s long range drive we didn’t really look like scoring all afternoon.

10 Sunderland is a massive, massive game.
I don’t expect much from Bolton next Saturday, not Manchester United on October 1, but in between those games is the Monday night visit of Steve Bruce’s Sunderland. The Black Cats have had a nightmare start to the season and the loan of Asamoah Gyan behind Bruce’s back seems to be a massive smack in the teeth. There’s never been a better time to play a team like Sunderland and under the Carrow Road floodlights it will be our best chance to win a game to avoid a run of no wins in our first seven games.

Chelsea 3 Norwich 1: Ten things we now know

1 That was the most expensive game of football involving Norwich I’ve ever been to

I sat, well stood, in the Shed Lower and paid £47. Only the 11 minutes of added time at the end of the game for Didier Drogba’s injury took the average cost of the game under 50p a minute. I haven’t been that concerned at paying that kind of fee per minute since ringing those 0898 numbers in my teens!

2 Chelsea’s team won’t win the title with their tired old squad.
While Florent Malouda started well and Jose Bosingwa scored a cracking early opener, the rest of the Chelsea players were really poor. In particular Drogba, Fernando Torres, Frank Lampard and John Terry were shockingly average. Romelu Lukaku, a player I’ve seen in the flesh for Anderlecht a couple of times and Juan Mata did more to impress in their brief time on the pitch than Torres and Drogba. The Ivory Coast striker hit a couple of early free-kicks well over the bar, but as for Torres? He was simply not even a threat.

3 Chelsea’s fans really are a letdown
All the atmosphere today came from the 3,000 odd Canaries. Chelsea, despite their lovely stadium, awesome footballers and mega bucks really have some funny old supporters. They contributed nothing in terms of songs or banter during the game and I never realised Stamford Bridge was so quiet. Their fans certainly thought they had to just turn up to beat City today and from the ones I spoke to one the way out, they seemed really impressed by us and, in particular, Grant Holt. A trip to Chelsea is a bit of a culture shock, I did smile to myself when I saw a stretch limo parked next to one of the Cabbage coaches on the Fulham Road on the way out!

4 Grant Holt is gaining quite a reputation
Pat Nevin singled him out in the match programme, some of the Chelsea fans on the way home were asking who that ‘big striker was’ and Match of the Day viewers will see Grant Holt score a Premier League goal on the telly tonight.
He put in a fantastic shift today, he looks trimmer, fitter and faster than ever before and the desire he shows in a City shirt is both totally awesome and totally appreciated. Brilliant goal, great celebration and I’m really thrilled for him that he scored today.

5 Steve Morison is strong and physical, but I just can’t see him scoring
I want to give big Steve the benefit of the doubt but I just don’t have the same faith when he’s on the ball as I do with Holty. He put himself about a bit when he came on and had a couple of good chances to break. He probably should have done better when he and John Terry ran through on goal together but the England skipper nicked the ball off him with relative ease. I can see why he came on but given Chelsea’s speed at the back, I think I’d far rather have seen Simeon Jackson given a run out.

6 Bradley Johnson and Andrew Crofts were immense once again.
Paul Lambert opted to start with these two in midfield with Wes Hoolahan pushed further and Kyle Naughton out on the right. Johnson , in particular, was everywhere again and he’s doing well to keep David Fox out of the team. When you look at Chelsea’s midfield with the hatchet man that is Ramires, I think City have got their own version in Johnson. Lambert is quickly learning the importance of players like this in the Premier League and both Crofts and Johnson were solid.

7 Our defence can keep teams in their pocket – but only for so long
OK, forget the early Bosingwa goal. Apart from that and until John Ruddy was sent off, out back four were really strong, with Ritchie De Laet really standing out as a composed and measured defender. Drogba and Torres didn’t get a sniff in the whole game and De Laet really does seem to be a solid defender. He communicates well with Ruddy and the rest of the back four and has a good burst of pace. I’m starting to become a big fan.

8 Two red cards in two games – how many are we going to rack up this season?
Same old story as Stoke really. We were genuinely in with a shout of taking something big from a game and then a red card turned it against us. Against Stoke we played most of the second half with ten men and same again today. As soon as Ruddy went, it was always going to be a struggle. So what’s the answer? Well I don’t think there is one. Things are supposed to even themselves out in football, but we’ve had precious little luck from the referees so far.

9 We’re still giving silly fouls away around the edge and in the box
Three games and three penalties conceded and it doesn’t take a genius to see a trend developing, but there were other free kicks, particularly early on that Chelsea seemed to win that could have cost us. Thankfully for us Drogba was on the other end of them and most of them sailed well over the bar. Premier League players go down with just the slightest of touches and Chelsea’s players know just how to win them. The Blues could have benefited from them, as could Stoke last Sunday. Better teams than Stoke, and indeed Chelsea, will really punish us if we keep giving away cheap free-kicks

10 But we’re also starting to win them too
Holt , in particular, seems to be picking up the knack of winning decisions that in reality are simply 50/50 calls. Mark Hughes was a master at this 20 years ago and Holt, with his back to goal, is managing to get the rub of the green. Against Stoke and Chelsea it seemed that early on referees didn’t want to award anything to Holt, but as the games both got to the later stages, he seemed to win more. Perhaps referees are giving defenders a couple of fouls before clamping down. It’ll be interesting to see how Holt gets on at West Brom. I’ll be watching with interest to see just how many times he can get us into a decent position around the box by winning a cheap decision.

Norwich 1 Stoke 1: Ten things we now know

I've dispensed with regular boring match reports after the Norwich City games I go to this season and will be writing a list instead, like one of my favourite sportswriters, Peter King.

American Football journalist King writes for Sports Illustrated and files his Monday Morning Quarterback column after the weekend NFL games. One of the best bits, is his ‘Things We Now Know’ section which is his observation of what happened in that week’s action.

In an ode to the legendary king, here are my ten things we now know from this afternoon’s Premier League clash with Stoke.

1 – Premier League, we are back!
Perfect bound programme for £3.50, flashy electronic advertising and new seats in just about every spare bit of space, Carrow Road was really rocking today. Is it fit for Premier League football? Well, when you consider we had more fans at today’s game than Bolton did against Manchester City, then yes it is.

2 – John Ruddy had almost a perfect 90 minutes.
Man of the match? Quite right. Not that much to do early on but came into the game big time on 28 minutes with a great save from Matthew Etherington. Didn’t have much else to do in the first half but came into his own in the second half. An excellent penalty save, and a superb tip over from a dangerous free-kick, Ruddy is good enough for the Premier League. Deserved a clean sheet and unlucky not to have got one.

3 – Grant Holt will be able to trick Premier League referees.
The game was only a minute or so old when Jonathan Woodgate conceded the first of many free-kicks to Grant Holt. He may have made a habit of it in League One and the Championship and today we saw that he really is worth at least half a dozen free kicks from pretty dangerous positions. Seven years ago this week Woodgate was signing for Real Madrid while Grant Holt was playing for Rochdale.
Now they’re equal and I felt Holt had the measure of him today. Ryan Shawcross did better against Holt and the two came close to blows at a corner late on.

4 – Wes Hoolahan may only play 15 league games this season.
If Paul Lambert feels that he can’t field a skillful play-maker like Hoolahan in a game like this against a physical Stoke side then we may not see that much of Wes this season. Stoke had six behind the ball for most of the game and players like Dean Whithead and Glen Whelan are unspectacular but solid midfielders. Plenty of Premier League sides have players like them and as much as we love Wes at Carrow Road, it could be time to face up to the fact that he fast becoming a luxury player for Norwich.

5 – Bradley Johnson has been Lambert’s best summer signing.
I was as surprised as the next man when Norwich signed Johnson on a free transfer from Leeds, but after watching him against Gorleston I was pleasantly surprised. Sure that was just a friendly, but today I thought he was just what we needed – an enforcer ahead of the centre halfs. He didn’t put a foot wrong and pulled off a couple of nice moves too. David Fox certainly has a better range of passing, but Johnson offers far more security.

6 – Ritchie De Laet could become a cult hero at Carrow Road.
Not since Gary Doherty has Norwich had a player like De Laet at the club. He runs with his arms on the ground, has a face that would be perfect for radio and has an eye for goal. His opener today was brilliant – watch it again on Match of the Day Two tonight and you’ll see the perfect dummy run for the opener that gave him the space for that header. He was good at the other end too, and looking at the table tonight, he’s done more than most to earn those two valuable points so far.

7 – Pilkington and Bennett are going to be key players this season.
Home debuts for both and while Bennett was key in earning the free-kick from which De Laet scored, it was Pilkington down the left who caught my eye, certainly in the opening 25 minutes when the game was rather chess-like. He’s got some pace and pops in a sweet cross. He is one player I could certainly get used to watching more of in a yellow shirt.

8 – Chris Martin played today like it was January 2007.
There’s not much to recall about the second half of the 2006/07 season apart from the emergence of Chris Martin around the time of the Blackpool cup replay under Peter Grant. Martin was a fresh face that season and today it was a surprise that he started the game. He put in an excellent show, had a couple of cracks at goal and to all intents was like having a fresh face in the City squad. Only a few weeks ago he was linked with a move to Barnsley,

but today he showed that he’s certainly worth a place on the bench in any Premier League game.

9 Stoke didn’t honestly deserve to nick a late winner.
Any Stoke fans reading this, I am sure you will agree that you were lucky to get a point. Norwich fans know we were lucky last season to score so many late goals and, although the goal was coming for the last ten minutes, I thought Stoke’s attitude after Leon Barnett’s red card was a bit strange. Sure Tony Pulis knows what he’s going and Stoke really are a model for Norwich in terms of top flight resilience, but I was surprised he didn’t opt for a more attacking shape. Nobody stood out in a Stoke shirt today, the likes of Jermaine Pennant and Matthew Etherington were kept quiet, the front two had off games and I think they’ll struggle to match the heights of last season. I’m sure they’d have taken a point at Carrow Road before the game, but they really should have come and taken all three – just what were they scared of?

10 – Barnett and Ayala passed their tests against Stoke’s battering rams.
Elliot Ward and Zak Whitbread were the preferred pairing in central defence towards the end of last season after Barnett’s injury against Stoke, but today it was Barnett who was first charged with marking the handful that is Kenwyne Jones. I thought Barnett did well, but to be fair, I’ve seen Jones have better games. Ayala came on following Barnett’s dismissal and didn’t let anyone down. I’ve already praised De Laet, and feel that our defence isn’t actually as bad as certain sections of the media think.