POOR RUN

Norwich City have been on a poor run of form recently and this has intensified pressure on manager Chris Hughton. After managing a mediocre season last time around, the expectations at Carrow Road have increased after a summer of newer rivals.

Hughton has so far struggled to manage those expectations because Norwich have started the season in a poor fashion. After six games in the campaign, they have managed just two victories and are currently 14th in the table. They have only a three-point difference between them and the teams in the relegation zone.

Norwich have one of the most difficult round of fixtures for most any Premier league club for the next few weeks because they will be facing the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Manchester City. They are expected to be in the relegation zone by the end of this run. Winger Anthony Pilkington, though, thinks that any talk of Hughton leaving the club is absurd because the former Newcastle United boss has been excellent for the club in every way. Norwich only managed a second win of the season after a 1-0 win over Stoke last weekend.

Pilkington reckons that they can build on this victory, while the clean sheet was also an added bonus for the club.
“It’s crazy. I wrote on Twitter asking if it was too early for Paolo Di Canio [the former Sunderland manager, who was sacked on September 22] to go, given we’re only five or six games into the season. We have brought a lot of new players in and it takes time for them to gel. But you have seen at Stoke what we can do,” said Pilkington. The 25-year-old has been one of the influential players for Norwich this season. The Republic of Ireland international is expected to start against Chelsea.