Premier League progress report: Which way are Norwich City headed?

Richard Jolly looks at the this season's three promoted clubs, starting with Alex Neil’s side who started well but have lost momentum and are 15th on the table.

Dieumerci Mbokani, centre, has scored a goal in each of his two games for Norwich City since joining on loan at the end of the transfer window. Alex Livesey / Getty Images

With the Premier League season well underway, Richard Jolly provides a progress report of the three promoted teams. Here, he focuses on Norwich City.

The start

Mixed. Norwich City climbed into the upper half of the table after losing only two of their first seven games. They found the net in eight of their first nine matches, with captain Russell Martin becoming the top-scoring defender in the Premier League. Yet a run of four defeats appeared a reality check, especially as the 6-2 thrashing at Newcastle United gave City the Premier League's worst defensive record.

But they have been more solid since then and halted the slide with a 1-0 win over Swansea City before the recent international break. They now sit above Chelsea in the table, at 15th.

Reasons to be optimistic

They play more attractive, more progressive football than when they were last in the Premier League and theirs is a genuinely fine midfield.

Only Mesut Ozil and David Silva have more assists than Wes Hoolahan, while Nathan Redmond’s capacity to chip in with goals is rather greater than those of many a costlier player at a bigger club.

Jonny Howson and Graham Dorrans are underrated craftsmen, Matt Jarvis may be a quietly astute recruit and Robbie Brady, the £7 million (Dh39.2m) addition, who was Norwich’s biggest summer signing, has been a threat at either left-back or on the wing. The rather cheaper, but potentially very influential, Youssouf Mulumbu, is fit again.

His fellow Congolese Dieumerci Mbokani offers the promise of goals. Most significantly, perhaps, Norwich appear to be learning lessons. Purists were much more pragmatic when defeating Swansea. They had just 33 per cent of the ball, but stifled Swansea.

Reasons to be pessimistic

The suspicion before the season started was that the defence was not good enough. A failure to buy a centre-back in the summer looked a mistake.

The opening 12 games have supported those theories. Norwich were the last team in the division to keep a clean sheet and Martin, the captain, may find himself dropped.

Norwich have conceded too often at set pieces while goalkeeper John Ruddy has also been fallible, with suggestions he should be omitted.

At the other end of the pitch, Cameron Jerome toils manfully but has only four goals in his past 53 league games. Plenty of others have chipped in so far, but at some stage the strikers will have to bear the weight of the scoring duties.

The X-factor

Alex Neil, the 34-year-old manager, has progressed quickly. An intelligent, intense figure also appears a quick learner. He foxed Manchester City by reconfiguring his side in a 5-4-1 formation that nearly produced a point at the Etihad Stadium.

After enjoying majority of possession, Norwich showed against Swansea that they can be organised out of possession. Neil also has creative players, in Hoolahan and Redmond, who he does not trust to defend, so much depends on when, and how, he uses them.

Key man

Mbokani. For various reasons, the striker, who was borrowed at the end of the transfer window, has started only two league games.

He has nonetheless scored twice, albeit both in defeats. He ought to take over from Jerome as the lone forward. After averaging a goal every other game for Dynamo Kiev and almost two in three for Anderlecht, he could be the regular scorer that Norwich looked to lack, and indeed missed when they were relegated in 2013/14.

Prediction

Touch and go. Norwich could certainly benefit from at least one of the slumbering giants beneath them – Aston Villa, say, or Sunderland – enduring a diabolical season. They also have to be more resilient at Carrow Road, where they have lost three times already, and could benefit from reinforcements in January.

It is easier to average a point a game over the season’s first dozen fixtures than over the campaign. Yet there are reasons to believe Norwich could end with around 36 or 38. It might be enough to keep them up. It might not.

NEXT: Watford FC

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