Football has come home. Well the Premier League starts again, and that is football right?
Norwich City start their campaign away at Craven Cottage after a fairly limp pre-season. The games played under Hughton up till now have not really given us much insight into how they will fair, as it seems pre-season is more about the fitness of the players and bedding in new recruits rather than the results, so we have little to go on in way of making predictions. Under Bryan Gunn, Norwich were unbeaten in their pre-season and went on to lose their opener 7-1 at home to Colchester United which serves to illustrate this point quite nicely.
Chris Hughton has brought a few players over the summer, as is to be expected. Of those the most useful looks to be Robert Snodgrass from Leeds, expect him to start behind the striker in a 4-5-1 formation, he looks a good player, technically very capable and often a threat from set pieces. His delivery could prove important as a fair chunk of Norwich's goals last season came from headers. More often than not the head of Grant Holt, who after signing a new deal looks set to end his career at Carrow Road. Whether he can replicate the form of last season remains to be seen, but without much pace to lose it could well be business as usual, that business being scoring goals and being an all round (hopefully not too round) fan favourite.
The defence has also been strengthened over the summer, Hughton obviously identifying this as something that needed to be bolstered, bringing in three new players in Michael Turner from Sunderland, Steven Whittaker from Rangers, and Javier Garrido on loan from Lazio. Turner looks to be a good buy, he has three years experience in the Premier League and looks to be a fairly decent player. Whittaker and Garrido will serve to provide competition for places at full back, something which Norwich certainly need with Marc Tierny and Russell Martin as their only other options. Kyle Naughton of course returning to his parent club Tottenham after an impressive season with the Canaries last time around. Jacob Butterfield, who was very highly rated at Barnsley, and impressively captained the side for a time despite being younger than many of his colleagues, completes Hughton's summer business, who will again provide competition for places, this time in the midfield.
With a couple of weeks left in the transfer window fans might be hoping for the club to bring in another striker, as apart from perhaps Grant Holt, not many would back the others who are on the books to get the club the fifteen or so goals that could make the difference between relegation and survival. Though with the lack of money available at the club it could be the case of one in one out, and with speculation over James Vaughan's future, it wouldn't be a surprise to seem him depart to make room for a new arrival.
Looking at the game against Fulham, City fans will certainly be pleased to hear that Clint Dempsey is unlikely to play due to the uncertainty surrounding his future at the London club, after two impressive displays against City last season it is certainly a welcome boost to the Canaries chances. Opening day games are notoriously hard to predict, both clubs will obviously be wanting to get off to a decent start, and I can see this one finishing as a score draw.
Predicted result: Fulham 1-1 Norwich City
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