Hughton Turns Things Around at Norwich

Chris Hughton’s Canaries recorded a famous victory at Carrow Road at the weekend, with Manchester United joining Arsenal in leaving Norfolk empty-handed.
A 1-0 win courtesy of Anthony Pikington’s second-half header puts City into 13th place, level on points with Newcastle and it stretches their unbeaten record to six games.
It really was a heroic performance from Hughton’s men, with the hosts playing with discipline and heart for the whole 90 minutes. Praise must also go to the Norwich support, who really cranked up the volume inside a packed Carrow Road.
The Canaries went into the contest with title favourites United unchanged for the third game in a row and for me, that is at the heart of City’s recent success. As soon as this news was confirmed, I searched for places where you can find free soccer bets online and lumped on Norwich.
Hughton now seems to have settled on his best line-up and the players – to a man – know their jobs and they’re doing them well. The defence is as solid as it has been in years and credit must go to the former Newcastle and Birmingham chief for going into the transfer market and picking out a few gems.
You just the feeling that former Norwich boss Paul Lambert – who, of course, worked miracles at Carrow Road – wouldn’t have gone in for a Sebastien Bassong or Javier Garrido, two defenders who have performed admirably in recent weeks.
He preferred to pluck players from the lower leagues and while you can’t knock his policy when you look at Lambert’s record, it’s now time for proven Premier League performers to take the club forward.
The defence is at the heart of this and in Steven Whittaker, Bassong, Michael Turner and Garrido, Hughton is working with a fresh back four. Without being disrespectful to the likes of Elliott Ward, Zak Whitbread and Adam Drury, part of last season’s backline, these players have taken the Canaries to the next level – proven by the fact that City have the joint highest amount of clean sheets in the Premier League.
Granted, some of the attacking freedom of last season has been curtailed but in Wes Hoolahan, Norwich have a creative spark capable of igniting any game. Grant Holt will always get goals and another new addition, the Norwegian midfielder Alexander Tettey, has been very important in protecting the back four. And as the Canary faithful will testify, it only takes one goal to win a match – with 1-0 wins seeing off Arsenal, Man Utd and Stoke.
That old Arsenal song from the 1990s may have to be rewritten.