What was the situation like when the league was suspended on 13 March? “It would be a little miracle,” declared Daniel Farke of Norwich’s survival bid after their penultimate league match before lockdown, a 1-0 win over Leicester. That was only their fifth victory of the season, a tally they will probably have to equal over the next nine games, and it was a marked departure from most of their outings since August. For a side six points – plus a hefty goal difference – adrift, Norwich have looked remarkably good for much of the campaign. They are one of the best teams to have found themselves in this position during the Premier League era and their vibrant attacking football has rightly won friends.
Players such as Max Aarons and Ben Godfrey will fetch huge transfer fees whether they stay up or not. But they occupy this position because, in a familiar lament of the doomed, their good work has been undone by profligacy in one box or inattention in the other. They got it right at both ends when Leicester visited, and famously so when Manchester City were beaten in September. Now it needs to happen consistently: Farke and his squad have maintained a notably sunny disposition and believe they remain in the thick of the fight.
What about now? One of the reasons for Farke’s optimism is that he has a virtually full deck to play with, although it remains to be seen whether the positive Covid-19 test for one of his squad on Saturday has longer-term ramifications. . He has had to patch and mend at centre-back for most of the season but now Timm Klose, Christoph Zimmermann, Grant Hanley and Godfrey are all fit so perhaps he can find a combination immune to those costly mistakes. Klose, who had been out all season, looked sharp in an intra-club friendly match on Tuesday and even scored. It will also help that Teemu Pukki, their star striker, has had time to rest the toe injury that hampered him during the winter and early spring. The goals had dried up for Pukki before lockdown, his previous 11 starts yielding only two. His prospects of getting back in the groove will be aided if Hertha Berlin agree to extend the loan of Ondrej Duda, the impressive creative midfielder, beyond June.
What needs to be done to have a successful end to the season? For all the positivity, they still need the kind of run a Champions League qualifier would be proud of. That means they must get off to a flyer and, given two of their last three fixtures are at Chelsea and Manchester City, they can barely afford to put a foot wrong in the first six games. They begin with consecutive home assignments against Southampton and Everton. Norwich had been among the clubs most vigorously opposed to playing the season out at neutral venues, with all five visitors to Carrow Road looking beatable. Exactly how they can maximise that advantage behind closed doors remains to be seen but a fast start is vital. An FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester United may, in such a tight schedule, be something of a distraction.
Have the players and staff behaved during lockdown? Nobody is known to have stepped out of line, which is little surprise in a squad of good apples. The club was criticised during the spring for placing some of its non-playing staff on furlough, with Newcastle the only other top-flight club to do so, but Norwich run a tighter financial ship than most and have stood by their logic.
Any unsung/community heroes? Players began weekly calls to elderly fans in March and plenty more activity has taken place. The midfielder Tom Trybull and his wife, Anna, have bought food and clothes for homeless people locally; Anna also wrote a book recently and £10,000 of the proceeds will be divided between two local charities.
Key player in the run-in? It has to be Pukki. He has scored 11 goals so far and Todd Cantwell, with six, is the only other Norwich player to have contributed more than one. He will surely need to finish up near the 20 mark if Norwich are to have any chance.
End-of-season-prediction Farke may believe in miracles but Norwich have just too much to do. They will probably reduce the gap to 17th place, and a Cup semi-final is not beyond them, but a quick return to the second tier is more than likely.
Remaining fixtures (all times BST): Fri 19 June Southampton (h) 6pm, Sky Sports Weds 24 June Everton (h) 6pm, BBC Weds 1 July Arsenal (a) 6pm, BT Sport TBC Brighton (h), Watford (a), West Ham (h), Chelsea (a), Burnley (h), Manchester City (a)