Calamitous Canaries’ countless flaws exposed by clinical Crystal Palace

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It’s almost impossible for a team to be relegated from the Premier League in December, but Norwich City seem destined for the drop once again.

The Canaries were promoted to the top flight with a new sense of optimism after strolling to the Sky Bet Championship title in 2020/21, winning the league for the second time in just three seasons. Despite a failure to cement their position in the Premier League in recent years, the club’s impressive summer spending led fans to believe that their fortunes would change this time around.

Their slow start could be excused. After all, facing Liverpool, Manchester City, Leicester City and Arsenal in back-to-back games would be tough for any Premier League side, never mind a recently promoted one. But things quickly began to sour, as Norwich failed to win a single league game until 6th November.

By this point, the decision was already made to part ways with manager Daniel Farke. The 2-1 victory away at Brentford was to be a final send off, and the German was relieved of his duties shortly after the full-time whistle was blown in West London. Dean Smith was soon appointed as his replacement, having been sacked at Aston Villa just eight days earlier, but there has been little in the way of a tangible improvement since then.

Norwich will head into 2022 at the foot of the Premier League, having lost all of their games in December by an aggregate score of 14-0. The situation reached boiling point on Tuesday afternoon, as a makeshift Canaries lineup was brushed aside by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in front of their irate and deflated travelling fans.

Smith was keen to point out the circumstances around the 3-0 defeat in his post-match media duties. Norwich’s squad has been ravaged by injuries and Covid-19 related absences. Not a single player named in the starting lineup had scored a Premier League goal this season, and that run would continue as the Eagles cruised to a comfortable win.

But this is not a case unique to the Canaries. In fact, Palace themselves were forced to rotate their team for the same reasons, with manager Patrick Vieira not on the touchline after testing positive for Covid-19. Almost every team in the league has had to make significant changes to their lineups because of recent outbreaks. The difference is that Norwich simply don’t have the quality to compete.

This is a pretty damning conclusion given that the club spent in the region of £50 million over the summer, signing talented players such as Milot Rashica, Pierre Lees-Melou and Christos Tzolis. Highly-rated Chelsea youngster Billy Gilmour arrived on loan, as did Ozan Kabak, known for his stint at Liverpool earlier this year.

Ultimately, Norwich recruited the wrong players in the wrong positions.

It didn’t take long for fans to find out that the Canaries were lacking a strong defensive midfielder, so the club brought in Mathias Normann from FC Rostov just before deadline day. Widely regarded as the club’s best signing of the window, his time in Norfolk has been hampered by injuries. As a result, Gilmour has been forced to play as a holding midfielder, a role that he clearly isn’t capable of playing in.

In fact, there are doubts as to whether the Scottish international is capable of playing at this level at all, with some of the away fans at Selhurst Park aiming obscene chants at him to return to his parent club, Chelsea.

Norwich’s current defensive options seem threadbare at best, but even at full strength there are question marks as to whether those in the back four are good enough. Grant Hanley and Ben Gibson were a quality centre-back partnership in the second tier, but haven’t made the step up to the Premier League. Kabak, who was unconvincing in his time at Anfield, has been a liability so far for the Canaries.

Goalkeeper Tim Krul somewhat makes up for Norwich’s problematic back line, but his absence due to testing positive for Covid-19 saw Angus Gunn step into the starting lineup. The 25-year-old has conceded 17 goals in his last three Premier League outings.

Perhaps the most concerning area, however, is up front, with Norwich not having scored since 30th November.

The sale of Emi Buendia to Aston Villa has not paid off, with his replacement, Rashica, struggling to adapt to English football and battling ongoing injury problems. Todd Cantwell has failed to replicate his impressive form from his last Premier League campaign, while Teemu Pukki simply cannot handle the sole attacking burden in the top flight.

Josh Sargent, signed as an understudy to the Finnish international, has arguably been one of the worst performers in the Premier League so far this season, with his open-goal miss against Brighton encapsulating his time at Carrow Road so far.

The Canaries’ strength in depth is incredibly poor, and the defeat at Crystal Palace further emphasised that. Tzolis started in a front three alongside Przemysław Płacheta and Adam Idah, a forward line considerably worse than the one they had in the Championship. Jacob Sørensen, a natural midfielder, was forced to play at centre-back, while Sam Byram had to start despite his considerable injury problems.

These weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed by the Eagles, who scored all three of their goals in the first half. Despite a positive start from the visitors, Kenny McLean brought down Will Hughes inside the box for a Palace penalty. Odsonne Édouard scored it, and then set up Jean-Philippe Mateta for the hosts’ second. Jeffrey Schlupp finished the rout with a fierce finish from a tight angle, effectively ending the game as a contest before the break.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect was that Palace weren’t even that good. All three of the goals that Norwich conceded were self-inflicted. They had no inspiration in possession and no confidence out of it. The Eagles simply took advantage of that without ever having to leave first gear.

The Canaries now head into a crucial January transfer window, but it remains to be seen what funds they have available after spending a significant amount over the summer. Despite their torrid campaign so far, they somehow remain just four points off 17th place. As crazy as it may sound, their situation is still salvageable.

But their relegation rivals all have an upper hand. Watford and Burnley have two and five games in hand respectively, while Newcastle United will undoubtedly use their position as the new richest club in football to strengthen their squad in the upcoming transfer window.

Of course, Norwich will be boosted by the return of various key players from injury and Covid-19 over the coming weeks, but it remains to be seen as to whether Smith can turn around the sinking ship like he did at Aston Villa in 2019/20. It will undoubtedly be the toughest task of his managerial career.

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