Hard work key to Norwich's impressive start, says Neil

(Reuters) - If Norwich City are sitting pretty in the top half of the points table after their return to the top flight, it is due to sheer hard work and the presence of players with prior Premier League experience, manager Alex Neil has said. Norwich are ninth in the table with seven points from five games, currently the highest placed promoted side. "It's hard work and good players, we know what we are doing and we are well drilled and I've got good players that carry out the tasks that are designated out," Neil told reporters. "If you look at the squad that I've got, the majority have played in the Premier League before," he added. Neil confirmed striker Gary Hooper, who has played only 13 minutes of league football this season, will be out for a number of weeks with ankle ligament damage. "Gary Hooper is going to be out a little bit longer than we anticipated with his ankle. Hopefully it shouldn't be too long, but it will be a number of weeks," Neil told the British media. Norwich travel to Anfield to face an out-of-sorts Liverpool this weekend and midfielder Alex Tettey admitted he was happy not to be facing Luis Suarez who has since moved to Barcelona. The Uruguayan striker scored 11 goals in five games against Norwich and became the first Liverpool striker to register three league hat-tricks against the same opponent. Tettey says they cannot afford to underestimate the current Liverpool side despite the Reds' poor start with two wins in their first five matches. "It is good Liverpool sold him because it seemed like every time we played them when we were in the Premier League, he seemed to score three or four goals," the Norway international told the British media. "It is going to be a tough battle. They have good midfielders who like the ball and who are very good in possession," he added. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)