Sunderland defeat leaves City favourites of the two to drop

Saturday’s lunch-time kick-off saw Norwich City squander a huge opportunity to edge closer to survival as relegation rivals Sunderland walked away from Carrow Road 3-0 winners. Wasting the chance to move seven points clear, the gap between City and the drop-zone has been narrowed down to just a single point. Worryingly, survival is now out of our hands - Sunderland will leapfrog Norwich and consign Alex Neil’s side to the bottom 3 should they win their game in hand against Arsenal next weekend.

Re-wind two weeks and Norwich fans were reflecting on back-to-back wins against West Brom and Newcastle. The upcoming fixtures against Crystal Palace and Sunderland represented two huge opportunities to all but secure survival. Newcastle looked dead and buried, while Sunderland were finding it impossible to convert their draws into wins and, ultimately, Norwich were hugely in the ascendancy. Two dour, goal-less performances later and in true Norwich fashion our lead, that we could have made unassailable, is now perilous. I guess it wouldn’t be Norwich if we made it easy for ourselves.

While the scoreline may suggest otherwise, Saturday’s performance was far from our worst. Anyone looking at the stats would quite understandably assume that the 3-0 score-line was actually in our favour - 64% possession, 19 shots, 14 corners, in everything but scoring we dominated. The fact that we still lost so comprehensively despite this apparent dominance illustrates our huge inadequacies - an inability to score and an inability to defend. When you can’t do either on a consistent basis then, unfortunately, there is only one way you’re heading.

It pains me to admit it but I genuinely would be surprised if we go on to retain our Premier League status. Norwich have proved time and time again in recent years that we simply don’t have the guts, quality or know-how to safely navigate through a relegation battle. In stark contrast, Sunderland seem to successfully do it year upon year, while they have a manager at the helm who has never came out on the wrong side of one. They also have the key ingredient required for survival: a goalscorer. If Norwich had Jermaine Defoe then we would have been safe weeks ago. Saturday’s goal took Defoe to 16 for the season, which represents quite simply a staggering tally for a striker in the midst of a relegation battle. When you consider that Mbokani and Redmond, Norwich’s joint top scorers, have only 10 goals between them it makes it all the more unbelievable. With Defoe leading the line, Sunderland will always score goals and as much as it pains me to admit it I genuinely feel that he will be the difference between Sunderland surviving and City dropping for the 2nd time in 3 years.

Before Norwich’s next game in 2 weeks time at the Emirates, Newcastle play twice, Man City at home and Liverpool away, while Sunderland also play host to Arsenal. If, and its a big if, we can somehow go into that Arsenal game still outside of the drop zone, with our two rivals having played their games in hand, then we may just be okay.

Saturday’s defeat has dealt a huge blow to our hopes but, whilst it may not be for long, we still remain outside of the bottom three. As long as we remain there, we have to stay hopeful. There are still plenty of twists turns still to come - let’s just hope that, for once, they go in our favour.