Norwich City welcome Everton with desperate Canaries nearing relegation

Norwich City “have no option to give up” when Everton visit Carrow Road in a must-win fixture for the Canaries.

Daniel Farke’s side return to action post-lockdown came with very little to be positive about as they were beaten convincingly 3-0 by Southampton.

With eight games left and just five league wins to their name, as well as being six points adrift of safety, Norwich’s fate is becoming more and more apparent.

The Canaries face an Everton side with little to compete for so far this season – the Toffees are a comfortable 11 points clear of relegation, but eight points from the European qualification spots.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side make the trip South fresh off the back of a dull 0-0 Merseyside derby with Liverpool.

Champions-elect Liverpool offered very little in front of goal and could have dropped points when Alisson had to deny Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin a late winner – Tom Davies then struck the post from the rebound as the Toffees came ever-so-close to taking all three points.

Team news

Everton will be without Yerry Mina (muscle tear), Fabian Delph (muscle) and Theo Walcott (chest) for the visit to Carrow Road.

Djibril Sidibe could feature despite taking a knock recently but he requires an assessment still.

Cenk Tosun remains unavailable as he looks to recover from an ACL injury, Jean-Philippe Gbamin has no return date set yet after suffering a serious Achilles injury.

The return to action has given Norwich more concerns than positives. Marco Stiepermann could return on Wednesday after returning to training recently; Grant Hanley and Christoph Zimmermann have been ruled out for the season with respective thigh injuries.

Sam Byram is also to miss the rest of the season following a complication in his rehab.

Daniel Farke on the loss to Southampton and the importance of beating Everton

On the Southampton defeat, he said: “We tried everything, bringing many offensive players on the pitch and changing our base formation.

“In the end, you have to say that because of going 2-0 down in the second half, we didn’t have the confidence to turn the game.”

On Everton’s visit tomorrow (June 24) he commented: “We are of course disappointed [to have lost on the re-start]. We didn’t want to just win five games, but nine out of nine – that’s always our attitude.

“The situation after a loss isn’t approved. It’s more difficult now. Of course, it’s better to win the first game. We’re now one back in the nine game series so our situation is a bit worse.

“It’s no option to give up or be too down. As long as we have a chance, we will keep going and keep fighting.”

Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti on the draw at Liverpool and the visit to Norwich City

“The spirit was really good [against Liverpool} and we want to continue to fight for the places above us.” he said. “We will see. I have a good feeling because this game was really difficult and we performed well.

“We would like to have the same spirit for the rest of the season. Defensively we did really well. We wanted to use the counter-attack and we did well in that area.

“We had opportunities and we were really close to winning. The players did really well, physically and mentally.

“They were strong and compact. It is never easy to play against Liverpool and we performed well. I think with the stadium full we could perform even better and I hope soon we are together [with the fans] again.”

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