Since the Canaries encountered their first real stumbling block of the season with a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth two games ago they’ve scored seven in two, and Adams’ yellow and green freight train is firmly back on track and hurtling towards the Blues this Saturday. Although the table is still very much in an embryonic stage, few would bet on anything other than a Norwich win in this fixture. Not only are the lads unbeaten in front of the Carrow Road faithful thus far this campaign, but they’re going into this match off the back of an emphatic four goal comeback against Cardiff and a 3-0 cruise past Brentford in midweek, leaving confidence among the boys at its zenith hitherto.
Moreover, there’s a chance that we’ll see the return of Jonny Howson and Gary Hooper to the match day squad – two players who were integral to Norwich’s limited success during out last spell in the Premiership. However, both featured for the U21s on Friday against Leicester and so will in all likelihood not be a part of the weekend’s starting XI. That said, it’s thought that Wes Hoolahan will be a doubt for after undergoing scans on his ankle post receiving a knock in the Brentford game. If this proves to be the case, a debut start for summer signing; Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe would seem to be on the cards – a player who I’m personally salivating with anticipation to watch demonstrate his abilities, and mark my words, he’s going to be a revelation.
Regarding Adams’ starting XI, it’s probable that there will be no alternations bar those forced by injury. I expect Ruddy to start in goal with a back four of Martin, Turner, Hooiveld and Olsson – Martin replacing Whittaker at RB having hopefully recovered from his minor back strain. Tettey and Johnson continue to perform at a level where dropping either of them simply isn’t an option, and so I imagine they’ll hold down the two CDM roles together; most likely with Odjidja-Ofoe starting ahead of them. From there I can see Grabban and Redmond starting on the wings with Jerome playing up top – his two goals against Brentford (one being an absolute firecracker) would put him there on merit.
PREDICTED LINE UP
VERDICT
From a statistical standpoint, with a points difference of 10 between the two sides and a goal difference of 17; a betting man would put his money on a win for the Yellows and I’m no different. Considering that for much of this season we’ve been banging goals in for fun, score lines are often challenging to predict. That said, I feel that if Adams’ side perform at the top of their game we could see a repeat of our midweek result or better.
