The sight of Eden Hazard’s shot squirming under John Ruddy’s body and trickling over the line was pure and undiluted agony, yet captured in a split-second the fine margins by which games are won and lost at the highest level.
As often seems to be the case we were left bemoaning some big ifs as the Chelsea following wildly celebrated as though on the cusp of the Premier League title.
The first one pertained to our friend Mr Swarbrick who, if he’d chosen to uphold the laws of association football, could and should have given City a penalty early on in the second half when Anthony Pilkington was tripped by Ramires. That he chose not to – nor book the City winger for simulation – was symptomatic of his awful afternoon; the two blatant City ‘corners’ he missed in consecutive first half minutes merely the aperitif for the big call he shirked after the interval.
The other ifs were more of City’s own making and, as many times as Pilkington ran that deft close range header through his mind on Sunday evening, you can be sure he also pictured that sliced and over-hit 85th minute corner.
What followed had rather too many ifs to list, suffice to say Alex Tettey and John Ruddy will both have joined Pilkington with a ponder or two post-match for their respective roles in Hazards’s equaliser. That neither covered themselves in glory was all too painfully obvious but equally both had been magnificent for most of the afternoon and didn’t deserve to end up on the losing side.
And that can be said of the whole team who, once they’d cleared their heads from those fraught opening twenty minutes, gave the King’s Road’s finest a real run for their money. Jose Mourinho was honest enough to admit they’d be given a scare; the catalyst for City’s pulsating second-half according to him being the Demba Ba miss straight after the interval.
From that moment on the Special One “smelled trouble” and with Carrow Road latching on the players belief, City didn’t disappoint him.
For long second half spells City not only matched Abramovich’s playthings but looked the better side; the midfield triumvirate of Leroy Fer, Jonny Howson and Tettey showing a comfort and poise in possession that had been missing early on Sunday afternoon but of which we’d seen some promising glimpses at the Britannia seven days earlier.
If indeed the fluent way the midfield linked up is a sign of things to come there will be few complaints – even those who remain ‘anti’ the manager could have few issues with the verve and tenacity shown for over an hour on Sunday.
Alas, there in a nutshell is the big issue. We played well for an hour – very well – but were made to pay for a shaky opening twenty minutes and an equally fraught closing nine minutes (Swarbrick’s four minutes of injury time merely prolonging the agony). The trick of course is to maintain the optimum level of intensity from minute one to ninety; infinitely easier said than done when confronted with the likes of Chelsea.
That Mourinho chose to turn to Hazard, Willian and Eto’o to save a potential embarrassment also tells a story of its own, with Willian’s transfer value alone usurping the not inconsiderable sums that City spent in the summer.
But that’s where the fine margins come into play. We can rue our bad fortune all day long but when the crunch comes you really do make your own luck. Small mistakes – like Pilks slightly overhitting the corner or Tettey slightly miscontrolling his attempted interception – were not only of our own making, but were of the type unlikely to be made by those in blue shirts.
Similarly Willian’s wonder strike that left Ruddy helpless; a gem that befitted one with £30 miilion boots. In similar circumstances I’m not convinced too many in yellow would have found the top corner in that fashion.
And that’s where we are right now. We’re an improving side (even though some still refuse to believe it) who, with a prevailing wind, are more than capable of upsetting one or two of the big boys, but to do so the fine margins need to fall our way. That didn’t happen on Sunday and when you’ve a hand like Mourinho’s there’s always a trump card available that, when played, will likely tilt the odds back your way. And so it proved.
I wrote, with my Metro hat on, a piece last week that looked back to the last time we beat the Blues – nineteen years ago for the record – and how our respective footballing paths have veered off on very different directions since that day. The basic gist was the obvious one – the haves versus the have nots – yet nothing I witnessed on Sunday, or during any of our recent encounters with them, has altered one jot my belief that the Norwich City way is the right way.
No billionaire benefactors or oligarchs for us, but a solid business model that in record time has seen us bemoaning a narrow defeat to the multi-millionaires of the King’s Road.
We’re Norwich, we’re proud and we’re going to be just fine…
We enter the international break in the relegation zone – albeit only because we fall below Fulham in alphabetical order – but I am much less worried about City than I was two league games ago when we were a few positions higher. The introduction of Fer and the come from behind against Watford seems to have been a real turning point with City’s ‘discovery’ of a midfield with real bite and that can hold possession.
Of course, many ifs and buts still, but if the midfield can continue like that, then the rest will fall into place and we will be comfortably mid table by Christmas. Some of the ifs are to do with alternatives to the current three in the middle, should they be injured. Johnson would not appear to be one, unless he learns to pass, since it was with his jettisoning that finally we had 3 who could move and pass the ball and play with some imagination. Maybe Hooper on occasion or Hoolahan could play the Howson role, but he has suddenly made it his own.
Hughton has developed more options in other areas – its good to see the debate around Ryan Bennett for example – and we now have wing options too. But having finally found a midfield that is so much more cohesive and threatening now, IF we can maintain it, we will prosper – without the billionaire benefactors.
Funny how disappointed can mean such different things- against Hull, Villa and Spurs I was disappointed. In all three, especially Hull in my mind we were, frankly, crap.
Against Chelsea I feel disappointed again, and yet the hurt is nothing like the same. My Dad felt we should have shut up shop and played for the draw, maybe (surely?) we would have got it- and a great result. But on the day Norwich smelled blood, we can win this the crowd thought and Chris Hughton waved his troops forward and they went for it. Hooray! We will never win matches by not taking risks, so I’m disappointed they won in the end, but glad to see signs of hope.
Excellent summary as usual Gary, I really look forward to your post-match articles, you always tell it like it is!
Obviously our star players are going to make the odd mistake, but I think our current midfield is the strongest I’ve seen for many a year! I’m confirent we will move to safety and stay safe fairly quickly!
The fact that after the Villa defeat, there were nigh on 100 comments in total on the site but since the Stoke/Chelsea games only a handful speaks volumes i.e. (1) those that were calling for CH’s head on a plate realised their knee-jerk folly but of course are waiting in the wings to pounce on the next bad performance and (2) most people just want to moan rather than contribute positive stuff. C’est la vie as they say in the Newcastle changing room.
3rd from bottom is well harsh on us – Cardiff is a must win game with the other games we have in the next month. Be good to see Hooper start in the PL (hope he doesn’t join Becchio on the eternal bench warming duties), but I have faith in the ‘gaffer’ and the team to find the right groove and get us mid-table by the time Santa comes down the chimney.
Russell – you moan when we criticise and gloat when we hold back, but you and so many others keep “whistling in the dark”.
The effort was excellent on Sunday, but Chelski were amazingly complacent. This midfield is not the finished article by any means and the improvement masks the continuing (imo) more general questions about formation, selection, substitutions.
We doubters obviously upset you and many others on here. Some of us have been watching and analysing football for 60 years or more – why should we have faith in someone as a manager just because he’s been a pro player. His managerial experience is very limited and he’s not a young manager. He’s been a long time in a support role – supervising training. He may be trying his best but this is sport – it is cruelly competitive and judgements take no prisoners. He’ll likely be gone by the turn of the year, before the window opens.
Adrian – thanks first of all for being a regular contributor to the site.
Your inference that ‘many others on here’ are upset by the doubters is wide of the mark. It’s not a question of being upset – more a matter of opinion that to give Chris Hughton the boot would be counter-productive to the football club.
Assuming we all want the same thing – a successful Norwich City FC – then it’s a simple case of differing views around how this can be achieved.
I can’t speak for others who have leapt to Hughton’s defence, but despite being accused of being an ‘apologist’ (although I’m not 100% sure what there is to apologise about) I’m actually nothing of the sort.
We simply want what’s best for NCFC and, in my humble opinion, right now that’s to keep faith with Hughton and allow him time to embed the new players into the system. Knee-jerk reactions after seven league games strike me personally as reactionary. Of the seven only the Spurs game can be regarded as a ‘no-show’.
Obviously no-one is exempt from criticism and no-one is perfect – even Lambert, dare I say it, didn’t get it right 100% of the time.
You can be sure McNally is monitoring events very closely – he alluded to as much with his ’embarrassed’ comment earlier – and will obviously take whatever action is necessary if the situation were to deteriorate.
For now… a good performance against Stoke followed by an even better, albeit pointless, one against Chelsea leads many to believe the new players are starting to find their feet and understand the system.
To put Sunday’s excellent effort down to ‘Chelski being amazingly complacent’ does a disservice to those involved and is the type of comment I’d expect from the other Adrian on TS!
Anyway… that’s what I think.
Thanks again for reading and contributing to MFW.
Adrian – moan..me?! You have every right to vent your spleen but I just think it’s a shame that when they do win or play well, there seems to be a rapid fall off in comments. Give them some credit when they get it right.
I liken it to the Labour party and the economy. They’ll whinge while it’s wobbly but clam up when it picks up as they can’t be seen to be praising the government.
It’s clear you don’t like CH and would be willing to buy his ticket out of Carrow Road but, as always, who’s the unemployed superstar manager out there willing to come to Norfolk to take us into the CL? Let’s see how Poyet gets on at the top level.
Well Gary, just to extend the “debate” a bit more and to clarify (defend?) my position : I intended no disservice to those involved on Sunday. The effort and attitude were indeed exemplary. But as in the Everton game, the opposition will have been hair-dryered by their manager for not killing us off when we wobbled after the first goal.
And I am not a knee jerker. For me the writing was on he wall a year ago. I came to the conclusion then in that much heralded unbeaten run that we were heading in the wrong direction and that the choice of management team was a a mistake that needed early remedy. Nothing has happened since to alter that opinion – indeed tbis season is just adding more to the downside for me.
I don’t see how exhortations to support the manager help at all. What is needed is to keep behind the players, and definitely not to call for the manager’s head at matches.
Adrian (8)… fair enough.
We sit on opposite sides of the fence on this one and I respect your opinion despite not agreeing with it.
Ultimately we all want the same thing… a successful City side
Russell – seen tonight’s Cardiff news? Looks like big Malky could rapidly become peed off with the regime there . . . . Would you consider him a suitable candidate?
Adrian – that’s clutching at a very long straw. He’s not available and neither is CH’s job. Besides, I thought you were after managerial experience? Malky’s is less than CH at the top level. Is Tony Pulis on your list?
Russell – I wasn’t recommending him, just seeking your opinion, and I don’t have a list. (And anyway, has the “entertainment” we’ve been subjected to been any better than Pulis offered?)
It is always a difficult and risk laden business finding a new manager (when one is eventually needed!) There are lots of experienced journeymen around and they are hardly appropriate for the PL. Not easy to find an experienced and talented one who might want the job here. Not many Lamberts about. However, Southampton seem to be doing OK, and they cast their net wider than the usual UK suspects.
As we and other PL clubs have had to do with recruiting players, ie from abroad, then that may well be where we need to look for managerial talent. But all options contain risks, including the status quo, especially the status quo.
Here’s a thought : now that the club’s finances have been sorted, perhaps it’s time for a new type of Chairman to take the development forward. In which case if the present incumbent went, Lambert might be persuaded to return. Ho Ho !