Three games in and Lambert’s learning curve drives ever onwards; the G Holt question has already been answered.

Three games in, two points on the board and, for me, exactly where I would have expected the Canaries to be at this stage of the season.

Making Match Of The Day friends and impressing people, in short.

Personally, I think you would need to be a fully-tinted, Yellow and Green spectacle wearer to really believe that the first three games should have yielded anything more than the draws against Wigan and Stoke and a defeat against Chelsea.

That they could have done is beyond doubt; but that is still a world away from going into each of those games in the belief that City should be worthy of more.

Stand back from the fray and observe the fortunes of QPR – a useful bench-mark from which to judge these matters. They travelled to Wigan yesterday and got nowt by way of return. The fact that they picked up three points at Everton – for me – says more about the state of affairs at Goodison than it does about Rangers.

Everton could be a ‘surprise’ package this season; one we may yet have to factor into our ‘basket case’ scenarios, alongside Blackburn who already look set for a long, hard winter.

The fact that Norwich have scored a goal in each of their opening three games is also not to be under-estimated – it is a feat that is proving beyond Swansea, who have yet to score at all.

Goals at this level are gold dust. And belief is everything in that regard; Norwich will now be going into Premier League games believing they can score goals at this level.

The doubts will be gathering at The Liberty.

The other point, however, is just how much City boss Paul Lambert will be learning from these three opening games.

For if truth be told, Miss Fortune hasn’t been overly kind with her favours; the Canaries aren’t getting the breaks they might have enjoyed in seasons gone by.

Injury-wise, Lambert is having to duck and dive, wheel and deal – Daniel Ayala being the latest slap in the face.

And now, suspension-wise, he is going to have to think long and hard how to play the John Ruddy situation; he will learn far more about the character of Declan Rudd in the next fortnight than might otherwise have been the case.

Can the young man step up to the plate? Can he fulfil all that teenage potential? Is the Premiership really his stage – at this point in his fledgling pro career?

Far better to find out the answers to such questions now than in the third week in April when survival might hang by a thread and the pressure on Master Rudd’s shoulders is that much more intense.

Certain big questions have, however, already been answered.

The G Holt one, in particular. On the evidence of the first three games, the Canary skipper is merely carrying on where he left off last season.

Twice – the free-kick against Wigan; the chip into the box from Wes Hoolahan yesterday – he has been a whisker of a touch away from scoring; yesterday’s opener demonstrated the coolness of thinking that all the great strikers have in their locker.

As open as that goal was, that chance was still there to be missed.

To get that monkey off his back – his first goal in the Premiership – so early and away at Chelsea to boot, will have done the two-time City Player of the Year the world of good.

And with it, his team-mates. He will now have the confidence of knowing he can deliver at this level; his eye for a goal hasn’t diminished. And with that will come belief amongst his new team-mates – the Pilkingtons and the Naughtons of this world – that the skipper is, indeed, the man that leads this team from the front.

At the back, the Canaries have the occasional wobble and can be the makers of their own downfall; Ritchie de Laet’s blind ball back into his own penalty area in the game’s dying moments was a case in point.

But he’s young; and learning. He needs to cut out those individual errors; they will get punished.

In the likes of Anthony Pilkington, Kyle Naughton and Elliott Bennett, Lambert looks to have recruited well. Norwich now offer menace, delivery, pace and athleticism for those wider areas.

Important, when you now have the City skipper on form and firing on all cylinders. Holt is finding space in Premiership penalty areas, spinning off your John Terrys and ghosting into dangers areas – that alone bodes well for the rest of the season.

The big one, of course, is racking up that first win.

Getting Miss Fortune to finally smile and for the better breaks to fall Norwich’s way.

It will happen. There are too many boys in this squad for whom hard work and belief are second nature for it not to.

It is a long, long way from part-time football in Barrow and a day job as a tyre-fitter to scoring a Premiership goal at Stamford Bridge. But Grant Holt has made a career out of proving the doubters wrong. Expect his team to do the same.