• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Football Writer

My Football Writer Norwich City news… comment… analysis

Norwich City – news, comment and analysis

Find the best betting sites
  • Home
  • About us
  • The Team
  • Archives Index
  • Patreon
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contact us

Chelsea play their part to perfection and deliver the Canaries the certainty they have long yearned for. Job done.

29th April 2012 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

Please share

Norwich City finally secured their Premier League status for another year this afternoon as Chelsea hammered West London neighbours QPR 6-1 – and, therefore, ensured that the Rs could not over-haul the Norfolk side.

With Wolves already condemned to the drop and Blackburn Rovers likewise unable to match Norwich’s 43-point haul, the maths now says all that City fans wish to hear – that the club will be playing host to Messrs van Persie, Suarez, Tevez and Rooney again next season.

Come what may over City’s final two games of the season – away to Arsenal and at home to Aston Villa – Norwich have achieved what they set out to do last August and will be in the Premier League come 2012-13.

It is now up to Rovers, Bolton, Wigan, QPR and Villa to scrabble their way to safety over the last two weeks of the season. The fact that Villa now face Spurs before heading to Carrow Road on the final day of the season won’t ease their nerves. Wigan and Bolton appear to have the wind in their sails; QPR and Villa quite the opposite.

City boss Paul Lambert has long insisted that avoiding relegation in their first season back in the top flight surpasses any of his previous achievements – be it promotion out of League One at the first time of asking or, indeed, promotion out of The Championship a year later. And both by the automatic door, too.

No lottery of the play-offs for Lambert and Co.

A year on and the Canaries have avoided the drop back to The Championship with two games to space – it is a remarkable feat with the level of opposition the Premier League offers merely demonstrated again this weekend with Liverpool’s comfortable 3-0 defeat of Lambert’s men.

It could have been worse with Jonjo Shelvey slamming a free, eight-yard header against the bar before missing a total sitter from no more than four-yards out as the Reds went through their FA Cup paces and in Luis Suarez offered another one of this season’s terrace villains in world class form.

The third and final goal to complete his hat-trick – the inch-perfect, 55-yard lob following a tired slip from Elliott Ward – was sensational and proved, yet again, that the top six or seven teams remain in a league of their own.

It also highlighted just how good a performance Norwich’s 2-1 success at White Hart Lane was on Easter Monday – three points that effectively sealed their place back in the big-time next year.

The hope is that Lambert’s young squad can use this first year as a big, learning curve as they seek to avoid ‘second season syndrome’ come 2012-13 and repeat Spurs (a) on a more regular basis.

For the likes of Jonny Howson, Ryan and Elliott Bennett and Anthony Pilkington this year has to be their ‘bedding in’ season; next year and their challenge is to step up another gear and prove to be the real, Premiership deal.

Part of that learning curve will be gaining the physical and mental strength to deliver performances on a more consistent basis.

Come this, the ‘business end’, of the season and the big teams still have their foot on the gas; that the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool are delivering performances with the kind of intensity that wins silverware. There is a ruthlessness to their game that, invariably, only comes with big noughts salary-wise.

Wherein lies another of Norwich’s big challenges this summer.

But on that performance, Liverpool will push Chelsea hard at Wembley – irrespective of the Blues’ own surging form and their place in the Champions League final.

It is, in short, what marks out the good players from the great – and yesterday Liverpool had at least three, great players dominating in every department on the pitch.

“You have to try and keep learning – keep trying to improve,” said Lambert afterwards. “To try and do the best that they can. And they are young enough to do that.”

City, he added, have to remember just where they were three, short seasons ago.

“You’ve got to remember what’s happened here,” said the Scot, whose services are likely to be the subject of endless speculation this summer.

“I can’t be too critical of the players [today]. It’s not too often that I go away from here disappointed.”


Please share

Filed Under: Latest news

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FIND MY FOOTBALL WRITER ON

As featured on NewsNow: Norwich City news” style=

Norwich City News 24/7

#NCFC LATEST

diss_express Diss Express @diss_express ·
38m

#ncfc columnist @EdwardSeaman94 says the strikers need to rediscover their form in front of goal
https://www.dissexpress.co.uk/sport/norwich-city-column-strikers-need-to-rediscover-form-in-fro-9305157/

Reply on Twitter 1639285336168644609 Retweet on Twitter 1639285336168644609 Like on Twitter 1639285336168644609 Twitter 1639285336168644609
buryfree Bury Free Press @buryfree ·
38m

#ncfc columnist @EdwardSeaman94 says the strikers need to rediscover their form in front of goal
https://www.dissexpress.co.uk/sport/norwich-city-column-strikers-need-to-rediscover-form-in-fro-9305157/

Reply on Twitter 1639285315201376257 Retweet on Twitter 1639285315201376257 Like on Twitter 1639285315201376257 Twitter 1639285315201376257
saund65 Canaries Caption It @saund65 ·
51m

Mel Machin's flat cap & track suit combo at Wembley will *never ever* fail to bring a smile to my face.
Timeless..
#NCFC

Reply on Twitter 1639282025247932418 Retweet on Twitter 1639282025247932418 Like on Twitter 1639282025247932418 7 Twitter 1639282025247932418
footballbobbles Football Bobbles @footballbobbles ·
54m

🟡🟢 Egg & Cress Bucket Hats IN STOCK!

https://footballbobbles.com/product-tag/norwich-city/

Perfect for #NCFC supporters!

@AlongComeNodge

Reply on Twitter 1639281163612172291 Retweet on Twitter 1639281163612172291 Like on Twitter 1639281163612172291 Twitter 1639281163612172291
norwichcityfc Norwich City FC @norwichcityfc ·
55m

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 MA: "It's obviously a complete honour to represent my country."

Hear from Max Aarons ahead of fixtures against France and Croatia for England Under-21s ⬇️

#NCFC

Reply on Twitter 1639280923022708737 Retweet on Twitter 1639280923022708737 Like on Twitter 1639280923022708737 29 Twitter 1639280923022708737
Load More...

Copyright © 2023 21VC Ltd | All rights reserved | Not to be reproduced without prior permission.

Disclaimer: The information on this website consists of personal opinions. Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained on these Web pages is accurate and correct at the time of writing we do not accept any liability whatsover for any loss or damage caused by reliance on this information.

We do not accept any responsibility for information contained in other websites to which this site links. We strongly advise users to check any information before acting or relying on it.

Developed and Hosted by