It's something a of a surreal situation looking ahead to tomorrow's clash with bottom club Sheffield Wednesday with a genuine sense of optimism after the Canaries have just lost their fifth game in seven matches.
Anyone present at the City of Manchester Stadium on Tuesday night though will share exactly the same feelings, because what we witnessed from the Canaries against the team currently sat third in the Premier League table was everything and more that we have been hoping for from Norwich for some time now.
City were excellent against Sven Goran Eriksson's team, and if ever a performance was needed to remove the nasty taste left in the mouth left by the Canaries' capitulation at Molineux four days earlier, then City certainly provided it in mid-week.
True, one swallow doesn't make a summer, and you can be pretty certain that if Norwich revert to the type of bland football that has been the hallmark of this 2007-08 campaign to date at Carrow Road tomorrow, then the cup heroics in Manchester on Tuesday will soon be forgotten.
Putting league points on the board is the target, and no-one should start counting their chickens as a result of one, first-rate display against a Premier League side, because it's one thing producing the goods when you've basically got nothing to lose ? even though there was undeniably a lot of questions for City to answer in midweek – and another when the pressure is very much on you to actually win a game against one of the weaker teams in your own league.
That said, nothing should detract from what we saw on Tuesday night. Because for the first time this season the Canaries got the ball down on the ground and moved it efficiently and effectively between themselves.
Norwich were creative and inventive in possession, they kept their shape and discipline, they made goal-scoring chances and, equally importantly, they remained defensively compact and strong.
It wasn't a flawless display, and there still remain concerns about the distinct lack of occasions when the visiting goalkeeper has had to fish the ball out of the back of his net. But it was a significant improvement on anything else that we've witnessed this season, and also much more than even the most optimistic supporter would have ever dared hoped for all the same.
Youngsters Michael Spillane and Rossi Jarvis performed above and beyond the call of duty in Manchester, with Spillane in particular such a revelation in midfield that it's difficult to see how Peter Grant can keep him out of the side tomorrow, despite the availability of Julien Brellier again.
Of course there is the opportunity for Grant to play the both of them alongside Darel Russell in midfield, but considering that Lee Croft did his chances of securing that right-wing berth on a permanent basis no harm with his contribution in mid-week, as well as the chance that Darren Huckerby could be fit to return to duty, he might be afforded the luxury tomorrow of having to decide who to actually leave out of his midfield for once.
Just as always seems to be the case with the Canaries, they bump into a side tomorrow that has just had a confidence booster of it's own, as after losing all of their opening six league games, Sheffield Wednesday recorded their first win of the season last Saturday courtesy of a 1-0 home win over Hull.
And although Brian Laws' men still sit rooted to the bottom of the table, they will now hope to be able to start to reproduce the type of football that made them one of the form teams in the Championship towards the end of last season.
But this is all about City tomorrow, and the big question of whether Tuesday night was just a one-off reaction to the Molineux debacle, or if the season really does start here.
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