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 and Sunderland set to renew fabulous friendship

When anyone says to me the names Norwich City and Sunderland in the same sentence I'm automatically thrown back to the spring of 1985 and the magical month of March.

Of course City won the Milk Cup in that month as the two teams met at Wembley and a week earlier I was a ball boy on my 10th birthday when the teams clashed in the league - a game that ended 3-1 to Sunderland.

That season is probably my favourite ever - it really did have everything including an opening day thriller at home to Liverpool, the fire burning down a stand at Carrow Road, Norwich's 4-2 home win against eventual champions Everton, the stunning Milk Cup run including Steve Bruce's semi-final, the Milk Cup win, qualifying for Europe, getting stitched up by Coventry and being sent down and then Heysel and an end to the European dreams.

And all that was achieved while Norwich wore their gorgeous Hummel kit that really was groundbreaking as the likes of Coventry, Aston Villa and Southampton didn't cotton on to the Danish brand until after the 1986 World Cup.

For me the two games with Sunderland in March 1985 leap out in the memory bank and it's amazing that the two teams haven't met in the top flight since 1991.

Bruce brings his Sunderland side to Carrow Road on Monday night two years after he last came to the City when his second string top flight team beat Lambert's League One strugglers 4-1 in the Carling Cup.

Monday's game promises to be full of memories for me as the last time I saw these two sides clash in the top flight I was just ten and more concerned with getting home to play on my ZX Spectrum and hoping to complete the last few pages of Panini's Football '85.

I'm hoping it will be a cracking game under the Carrow Road floodlights, and with sought-after Premier League points at stake, I'm sure it will be a cracker.

My Ten Things We Now Know from the Norwich v Sunderland game will be on here on Monday night.

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.

Perfect time for Norwich to play Chelsea

Norwich City fans could be forgiven for a certain amount of floor gazing and head scratching this week after the last minute disaster against Stoke and the Carling Cup whipping from MK Dons.
And, if expected, Norwich succumb to defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, I for one, think it could be a defining week in the club's season.

The Stoke game was a harsh lesson in Premier League life. Referees are far stricter in the top flight with the pressure to get things right immense and City have far from had the rub of the green so far.

Two penalties conceded in two games and a red card too show City may need to be more cautious when they face Chelsea. But even an expected big defeat could be a good thing for the club right now.

This is the last game before the transfer window closes and if the first two Premier League games have taught Paul Lambert anything it's that City lack a cutting edge in midfield.

Lambert's about to spend 90 minutes watching frank Lampard and he's exactly the sort of player Norwich need, someone to really take a hold of things around the edge of the box.

While Bradley Johnson and Andrew Crofts did a sound if unspectacular job across the midfield against Stoke, I think City need someone to drive them forward and attack the opposition - someone a bit like Lampard, or indeed, like Wes Hoolahan.

Whether Lambert feels that Hoolahan doesn't have the strength to patrol a Premier League midfield against a physical side like Stoke certainly throws open the question as to whether we need to sign someone else.

Like I said on Sunday, if PL doesn't fancy Wes at home to Stoke because they're a tough physical side then we can kiss goodbye to seeing him figure in more than half the games this season.

I fully expect Chelsea to comprehensively beat Norwich on Saturday. We've lost our last three games there 4-0 and haven't scored at Stamford Bridge since 1993.

What I hope, though, is that playing Chelsea now underlines just what we need in our starting elevens for the rest of the season.

In an ideal world we will get taught a football lesson on Saturday and the board would dip their hands in their pockets for Lambert to go out and sign an adventurous midfielder before the deadline next week.

I know football doesn't quite work like that, but hopefully playing Chelsea on Saturday will give us an idea of what our weaknesses are and, with a 15-day break before the next game against West Brom, it'll give him time to get things right.

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.