The Canaries travel to the Emirates Stadium for the Premier Leagues 5.30pm kick-off following a two-week break from football and Norwich boss Alex Neil believes if his team is able to replicate their performances during the festive period and following their warm weather training, the Canaries will have a fighting chance and “won’t lack belief” in surviving the drop.
The Canaries suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland in their last game before having a two-week break, whereas the Black Cats draw last weekend against the Gunners saw Norwich drop into the bottom three.
However, speaking to Norwich City TV ahead of tomorrow’s game, the Norwich boss believes it’s not the “time to give up” but instead the time to “roll our sleeves up”.
He said:
The bottom line is that we’re in a fight and we need to come out fighting.
There’s been a lot of negativity as you can imagine, obviously with the fact that we were four points clear and now we’re not, but this isn’t the time to give up. It’s the time to roll our sleeves up.We’ve been training hard and making sure that we’re ready for the game, we need to make sure we go to Arsenal and give a good performance.
Neil spoke briefly against his team’s opponents chances of getting into the top four, but insisted the focus remains on the Canaries.
They (Arsenal) seem to be a team where at this moment in time, their fans seem a bit restless. I think they’ll manage to secure a place in the top four again, but we’ve just got to focus on us
With the Canaries facing the Gunners, Manchester United and Everton in the final run in, the 34-year-old manager believes his team still has a fighting chance as they hope to beat the drop.
He said:
What you’ve got to bear in mind is that there are four games left.
Although people will see this one as being difficult, we’ve actually not done too badly on our travels against bigger teams.Certainly in the Man United game, we went there and carried out a really good gameplan. We’re hoping we can play as well and they won’t lack belief.
Finally, the Scottish manager spoke of how crucial City’s home games against Manchester United and Watford will be once his team overcomes Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal.
He added:
Hopefully we can replicate that, and then we have two home games. If we manage to do the business in them, then it gives us a good chance.
