Norwich - Match Preview

CHOULO19 · October 5, 2013

Venue: Chelsea face Hughton's Norwich City on Sunday, October sixth, at Carrow Road.

The Match: The match comes as part of Round Seven of the English Premiere League which will be the last before a two-week international break. The match is the first in a series of ten relatively easy league games for Chelsea between now and Christmas time, bar the home game against City a couple of weeks after the international break. The run of games will only be broken when we visit the Emirates on December 21 and will be crucial for our title hopes. The Blues will be expected to accumulate something around 25 points from those ten matches and create a bit of gap at the top in order to face the tougher schedule after the new year. And the best way to do so is to start with getting the three points away at Norwich - arguably the second most difficult match we'll face in this period.

Both teams were in "crisis" a week ago, if you believe what the papers write. But both Chelsea and Norwich got important wins last weekend against Fulham and Stoke respectively, if not to end the 'alleged' crisis, then at least to stop the papers from writing about one. And both teams will be looking for a positive result on Sunday to avoid going into another "crisis".

Opposition Analysis: Norwich City have suffered greatly from inconsistency this season. They've won 7 points in their 6 matches (the same as Manchester United)* this season from 2 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses and currently sit 14th in the table. They started the season with a great performance against Everton, but lost to Hull the following week. Their last match, an away win at Stoke City, came after two consecutive losses. Typically, you can expect them to play their best game of the season against us on Sunday!

Reasons behind inconsistency: A lot of factors have played a part in Norwich's inconsistency this season, in both attack and defense. Defensively, Norwich have been leaking too many goals for their managers liking. They've let in 6 goals in as many matches in the EPL, not to mention the 5 goals they shipped in 2 League Cup matches. Offensively, they haven't done much better. They've only managed to score two goals in their last five EPL matches. Much like Chelsea, Norwich have been suffering from low chance conversion rate (just over 10% for both teams)^[1]. The similarities don't end there as the Canaries have, like us, been lacking a consistent striker up front. Van Wolfswinkel played well and scored a great goal in the opening round but has failed to produce since, while Johan Elamander has been very far from his Bolton days form so far.

Stoke, a turning point? In the last match in the PL, Chris Hughton changed his team's formation from 4-4-2 to 4-1-4-1 to great effect. The team looked much more compact and solid in defense and much more fluid in attack. Alex Tettey put in a great performance in the holding midfielder role that helped his team control the match very well and keep only their second clean sheet in the last 42 away matches^[3] .He is likely to play an important role again on Sunday, but more on that later. Against Stoke, not only did Norwich get three valuable away points, but they also put in a great performance. A performance that could be a turning point in their season if the changes that Hughton made prove to be the winning combination for the Canaries.

Expected tactics: Norwich are not a team that look to keep possession, instead they look to move it forwards as soon as they get the ball. Expect them to happily allow us to have possession in our own half while they keep ten men in theirs. Norwich will look to counter quickly and with purpose whenever we lose the ball. They rarely look to penetrate the center but instead look to get the ball to the wings and put in crosses to take advantage of Van Wolfswinkel's ability in the air. They're also a huge threat from set pieces. Defensively, they are very organized and can be very frustrating to break down. We will need to take advantage when they are in transition and hit them on the break with numbers right after they lose the ball while some of their players are still out of position. When everyone gets back in position, it is best to keep the ball and pass it around the box looking for a gap instead of putting in crosses since they will most definitely have the upper hand in aerial duels in the box.

Key men: Norwich's Howson has arguably been their most important man this season. He leads his team in number of passes and chances created this season^[2]. Mark him out of the game and deprive him from possession and the back four will have a much more comfortable day. Van Wolfswinkel may be blowing hot and cold at the moment, but he remains a huge aerial threat and will definitely need to be marked closely in the box. Snodgrass has been off form so far this season, but he is still a quality player and you never know when he finds his form from last season. Finally, as eluded to above, Alex Tettey is an integral part to the Norwich machine. He broke up everything against Stoke and managed to recover the ball 8 times in the match^[3]. He'll have his hands full on Sunday with either Mata or Oscar. The battle between Tettey and our number ten will certainly be an interesting one to look out for and it could well prove crucial to deciding the outcome of the match.

Team News: Torres who suffered a knee injury in midweek, joins Marco van Ginkel and Kalas in Chelsea's the injury list while Hazard faces a late fitness before the match to see if he has completely recovered from his ankle injury. On the other hand, Norwich will have Redmond and Garrido back for this match and possibly Bassong who, like Hazard, has a late fitness test. Elliot Bennet is the only confirmed absence from Norwich's squad^[4].

Expected lineups:

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Iva, Luiz, JT, Cole; Rami, Mikel; Mata, Oscar, Schurrle; Eto'o.

Norwich (4-1-4-1): Ruddy; Martin, Turner, Ryan Bennet, Olsson; Tettey; Snodgrass, Howson, Fer, Pilkington; Van Wolfswinkel.

Facts and Stats**:

- Chelsea have won five and drawn one of their last six matches against Norwich.

- Chelsea have failed to win any of their away matches in the PL this season (2D 1L).

- Chelsea have only managed to score once on the road in the PL this season.

- No player has committed more fouls in the EPL this season more than Ricky van Wolfswinkel (19).

- Eden Hazard is the most fouled player in the league this season (21).

- Chelsea have intercepted a just 45 opposition passes this season. A league-low figure.

- Chelsea are the only side yet to concede a second half goal in the PL this season.

Betting Odds: Norwich 5/1; Draw 3/1; Chelsea 8/15^[5].

Match Coverage: The match will be live on Sky in the UK, NBC in the US, Al Jazeera in the middle east and North Africa, and Fox Sport in Australia. You can check where the game is live in your country here. There should be plenty of streams around if you don't have the channel to watch the match. You can also the match through our minute-by-minute match feed on TalkChelsea's Twitter account.

*This has absolutely nothing to do with the match; it's just very fun to say

**All "Facts and Stats" are from Football App for Android.

[1] www.squawka.com

[2] http://epl.squawka.com/norwich-city-vs-chelsea/06-10-2013/english-barclays-premier-league/matches

[3] http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/fourfourtwo-preview-norwich-vs-chelsea

[4] http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

[5] http://www.skybet.com/football/premier-league/event/15717139

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