Norwich City vs Crystal Palace
Date: 01/01/2020
K/O: 17:30
Venue: Carrow Road
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Norwich find themselves in an unfamiliar position as they have been demoted to the deepest depths of the Premier League table in last place after Watford’s win and the Canaries’ coinciding loss in game-week 20.
Crystal Palace, caging the Canaries at Selhurst Park earlier this season in a convincing 2-0 victory, will hope they can once again down Daniel Farke’s men, this time at Carrow Road – a ground at which they have lost just twice from their past eight visits.
The Eagles find themselves just four points and 13 goals away from the European places at the end of the decade, a far cry from when they fell into administration at the beginning of 2010. Roy Hodgson has transformed the Eagles during his tenure, enhancing their credentials even further from relegation candidates in consecutive seasons, to a genuine mid-table club striving for more. The tactical change that has made this transformation a reality is the defensive restructuring, which has reinvigorated a defence that once relied too heavily on old fashioned, body-on-the-line defending.
A defence first approach has seen the club concede just 26 goals from the 19 games away from home in the calendar year of 2019 – only five teams have conceded less: Liverpool (12), Manchester City (18), Manchester United (23), Leicester (25) and Wolves (26).
Their most encouraging factor is sustaining their fine defensive form on their travels. However, one alarming statistical alteration has seen their goals per game away from home drop from 2.22 over their nine away games in 2019 to a mere 0.9 so far this season. Maybe one of the largest anomalies of the 2018/19 season was Palace’s ability to score 20 goals from those last nine away games in 2019 – the most of any side over that stretch of games.
Jordan Ayew moved to the club permanently during the most recent summer transfer window and has made a laughing stock of his £2.5 million price tag. He’s scored five goals (the most for the club thus far in the 2019/20 campaign), including a potential goal of the season against West Ham in game week 19. His products have singlehandedly collected an inconceivable 10 points, taking some of the load off of Wilfried Zaha who has been allowed to live life on the wing and isolate himself with a defender (or three) – as he likes.
Norwich struggled to contain the pair of them during their last meeting with Zaha collecting an assist while running rampant finishing with six completed dribbles and four shots. Ayew took three shots and also won three aerial duels (the second most on the pitch that day), against centrebacks who were physically much larger than he is.
Coaches often refuse to lament on ‘what could have been’ with regard to injuries, but it’s hard not to empathise with head coach, Daniel Farke, who has been without a lot of his first choice 11 for a large chunk of this current campaign. After successfully guiding the club to promotion during his second season in charge, he would have hoped for a better outcome than the current 20th-placed standing after 20 games.
However, the starting back four that was so successful last season has not played a single game together this season. Jamal Lewis (6), Christoph Zimmerman (11), Maximillian Aarons (2) and Timm Klose (all 20) have missed their fair portion of games due to injuries varying in length. In fact, up until game week 20, only a maximum of two of the four had started a game together – such is the pain they have suffered defensively this season.
Their offence has toiled tirelessly to try and correct their luck, but with a front four that had never tasted Premier League experience before this season, it was always going to be tough. Still, Norwich have not failed to impose themselves offensively with their 16 home goals this season enough for the joint sixth-best record in the league, despite their current position in the table.
They even have players featuring in the top 10 for goals (Teemu Pukki) and assists (Emiliano Buendia) who have both successfully transitioned to the Premier League from the Championship. As has usually been the case for both respective clubs this season, they will have to rely on their outlying strengths to bring them success this game-week.
This match will largely be a case of an unexpectedly consistent and rigid defensive side with buoyant offensive soldiers against an opponent decimated by injury with an offence outperforming everyone at home except those clubs currently playing in European competitions (excluding Chelsea).
Team News
Norwich City
Kenny McLean will undergo a late fitness test to determine his fitness to see whether or not he can resume his position as a defensive midfielder in Farke’s 4-2-3-1 formation. Todd Cantwell could return to the starting line-up after being rested against Spurs. Otherwise, all looks to be the same as it was against Tottenham in game-week 20.
Crystal Palace
Seemingly the news is mirrored for Palace. No fresh injury concerns or potential returnee’s from injury. Kouyaté was rested against Southampton last game-week and should replace an out of form James McCarthy.
Predicted Starting XI’s
Norwich City (4-2-3-1): Krul; Aarons, Zimmerman, Hanley, Lewis; Tettey, Vrancic; Buendia, Stiepermann, Cantwell; Pukki.
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Guaita; Kelly, Tomkins, Sakho, Riedewald; Kouyaté, Milivojevic, McArthur; Meyer, Ayew, Zaha.
Score Prediction: Norwich City 1-2 Crystal Palace
It doesn’t get lower than a 3-0 defeat to the team just above you in 19th place, so there is nowhere to go but up for Norwich, but Palace’s defence has been exceptional for such a long time under Hodgson that it seems unlikely that they will be overcome by a tiring offensive Canary line-up.
