That’ll Be The Tettey

Article by e-Norwich Correspondent Colin Rowe

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For the umpteenth time this season, Norwich recorded an important win to ease the pressure on manager Chris Hughton and boost the team’s survival hopes.

A well deserved, and frankly convincing, victory over fellow strugglers Sunderland on Saturday lifted City to the heady heights of 13th in the Premier League table, although it should be noted many teams have games in hand over the Canary’s.Being able to get results like this when it matters most is to Hughton and the team’s credit and is a key reason for Norwich fans unwavering belief in their teams ability to avoid relegation this season.

The success was made all the more important with every other team now below Norwich failing to accrue points and Arsenal’s humiliation, which effectively puts them out of the title race, possibly giving City the chance of points on the last day of the season.

Robert Snodgrass gave Norwich an early lead before a headline-grabbing wonder-strike from Alex Tettey sealed the win against an abject Sunderland team who will struggle to take anything positive from the display.

The ease and importance of the win, however, disguises a variety of flaws in the performance and how perilous the Pride of Anglia’s place in the top flight still is.

Hughton sent out his side in an uncharacteristically attacking formation with two strikers, in Johan Elmander and Ricky van Wolfswinkel, and the often-maligned Wes Hoolahan and the risk certainly worked.

The more attacking style is something many City fans have been calling out for this season, not so much a return to the gung-ho style adopted by Paul Lambert, but a moderated approach where the Yellows are willing to get the ball forward and create chances, while still maintaining a strong defensive line.

It will be interesting to see if Hughton maintains this style in the weeks to come as Norwich aim to bag the two more wins required to all but guarantee a fourth consecutive season in the Premiership.

Norwich started positively and the only shock was they were only two goals to the good at half time, but after the break, in a style all too often seen when City go ahead, they sat back and if the Black Cats had shown any quality the result could have been very different.

However, lets no focus on the negatives and celebrate the fact Norwich scored twice in the first 45 minutes (the first time this has happened in the league this season) and kept yet another clean sheet at home, making it now one goal conceded at Carrow Road in the last six fixtures.

As moral boosting as the win was, for both players and fans, the big battle comes next weekend when City move away from the comforts of Carrow Road to face Swansea, although firstly Norwich will have to helplessly wait and see the outcome of some very important mid-week fixtures.

Norwich cannot drop any lower than 15th after teams across the league play rescheduled matches and Sunderland would have to win all three of theirs to overtake the Canary’s, which all sounds positive, but, with the relegation scrap being as tight as it is, things can change all to quickly if results are not backed up.

There have been too many false starts for City this season, good results against several teams have always been followed by disappointing loses, normally in away matches, but we will certainly delve into more detail on this subject in this week’s game preview.

For now Norwich fans should devour the moment and watch Tettey’s goal on a constant loop.

The good days have been few and far between this term and when they happen they should be savoured, but there is work still to be done.

On The Ball City

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