Signs are ominous for Norwich City. Nine games in, the Canaries are rooted to the bottom with just two points to their name. They are yet to win, have scored just two goals, and conceded 23 already. This weekend they suffered a 7-0 mauling at the hands of table toppers Chelsea. It was a dreadful performance from Norwich for whom everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
By 57 minutes, Norwich were already 4-0 down. Just past the hour mark, they conceded an own goal via a Max Aarons deflection and some comical goalkeeping from Tim Krul. Just three minutes later, Ben Gibson was given his marching orders as he picked up his second yellow card. 5-0 down and a man light, it was already bad enough, but it became worse. Tim Krul then had a penalty save chalked off as his foot wasn’t on the goal line. They say when you’re at the bottom, everything wrong happens. Daniel Farke witnessed that first-hand on Saturday.
Norwich City are really struggling for goals at the moment. Chelsea’s backline barely broke a sweat and their centre-backs spent more time in Norwich’s half. The visitors forced one save off Edouard Mendy, but the chance stemmed from a lazy Ben Chilwell back-pass.
Emiliano Buendia is a big loss for the Canaries
Both the club’s goals have been unsurprisingly scored by Teemu Pukki. He had a fruitful campaign last time when he scored 11 goals. But that alone wasn’t enough to keep up Norwich, and others will need to step up to the plate. Their squad unfortunately largely comprises of Championship players who lack the know-how of this league.
Despite bringing in some young talented individuals over the summer, letting go of their star man has hurt them the most. Emiliano Buendia had been linked to clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool since January. Ultimately he ended up at Aston Villa, but he has left too big a void to fill. His creativity is missing in the team and it’s reflecting in the numbers – not only are Norwich the division’s lowest scorers, they are bottom in the xG, big chances created, shots on target per match columns as well. Their defensive numbers are woeful aready, so unless something changes at the other end, they are set for a long and painful campaign.
Norwich are worse than Derby after nine games
Whenever a team starts a season as badly as Norwich have, inevitably comparisons are drawn to the ill-fated 2007/08 season of Derby County. In that season, they won just one game, picked up a mere 11 points, scored just 20 and conceded 89 goals. How do their numbers compare with Norwich City of this season?
It may come as a surprise, but Derby County actually posted better numbers than Norwich have after nine games. Derby had won their solitary game, sat on 5 points, scored 5 goals and conceded 22. Their goal difference was -17. All of these numbers are better than Norwich City.
The Canaries have already suffered a 5-0 and a 7-0 thrashing, and there could be more in store. However, they have a decent squad and a quality manager, so they should be well equipped to avoid a repeat of Derby County 2007/08. That, mind you, won’t be considered an achievement and they still might end up finishing bottom, unless something drastically changes.