Six things you might have missed from City 4-2 Luton Town

1 - The Entertainers 

Norwich City fans wanted entertainment. Johannes Hoff Thorup has duly delivered.

This week alone, the Canaries have added 10 goals to their tally for the first time in seven days at Carrow Road for 71 years in back-to-back victories over Plymouth Argyle and Luton Town.

It has taken their goals for tally to 35 – higher than 90 of the other sides in the top four divisions. Only Wycombe Wanderers (36) have scored more in their opening 17 league matches.

Twenty five of those goals have come at Carrow Road, five more than the next closest in Leeds and nine ahead of Coventry in third. This is the highest number of home goals scored by a single team in the entire EFL.

It is more home goals than any side in the top two divisions of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Belgium, Romania, Serbia, Greece, Turkey and Denmark.

Dutch second division side De Graafschap are two ahead of City in free-scoring at home, Sturm Gratz beat City by one, whilst Swedish side Malmo have scored 13 more.

Thorup has overseen more goals in his opening 10 home matches in all competitions (29) than Paul Lambert (25), Bruce Rioch (19), John Deehan and Alex Neil (18) in the last 50 years.

But while it shows City’s level of attacking prowess at home, the challenge is now to reduce the number of individual errors that prove costly at the other end of the pitch.

Only Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry and QPR have conceded more home goals than City. No stadium in the country has seen more goals than Carrow Road. Nobody can complain about a lack of entertainment now.

2 - Hoodoo ended 

An Achilles heel for Norwich City in recent years has been facing sides newly relegated from the Premier League.

Luton Town’s visit to Carrow Road was their 20th game against a relegated Premier League side since their last victory versus Swansea in 2019, when Emi Buendia’s winner settled a 1-0 win.

Since then, Norwich have drawn five and lost 14 of those matches, but they have now ended that hoodoo by overcoming Luton 4-2 this weekend.

That record provides evidence of how challenging it has been for Norwich to land significant blows on the teams challenging at the top, even when fresh to the second tier after their two relegations in that five-year spell.

Luton are clearly in a different place to most, having dropped from the top flight. They are enduring a difficult spell on their travels, having lost their last five on the road heading into this encounter.

City’s record against the leaders in the Championship is generally positive this term – having avoided defeat against the six sides they’ve played who are above them, with Sunderland and Burnley to come in a couple of weeks’ time.

However, they have only beaten Watford of the current top eight, achieving draws against Sheffield United, Leeds, Middlesbrough, West Brom and Blackburn.

Borja Sainz hit goal number 15 of the season in City's victory over Luton. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

3 - Sainz-sational 

Not enough superlatives are left to describe Borja Sainz’s start to this Championship campaign.

Despite not being at his best and cutting a frustrated figure for extensive periods of this encounter with Daiki Hashioka effective at limiting his involvement, he was still on hand to sweep Onel Hernandez’s cutback into the net for league goal 15 of the campaign.

Sainz is the quickest Norwich player to reach 15 goals in the league since Hugh Curran in 1968 - which underlines the impressive start to the campaign. 

In his opening 18 Championship matches, Sainz has scored more league goals than Southampton, Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Everton, Newcastle, Exeter City, Stevenage, Rotherham, Leyton Orient, Cambridge, and Tranmere.

He has become only the third player in the last 10 Championship seasons to hit 15 goals after Aleksandar Mitrovic for Fulham in 2021/22 and Ivan Toney for Brentford in 2020/21 – both went onto enjoy promotion with their teams that season.

No player has had more shots on goal than Sainz’s 62, and his 15 goals have come from 27 shots on target, with an expected goals value of 8.2.

Only Zian Flemming and Anis Mehmeti are bettering Sainz’s shots per 90 numbers (3.52) – and he is scoring a goal every 0.56 shot on target.

City have created a structure that allows him to create carbon copy opportunities within games, and Thorup has enabled him to receive the ball in higher areas of the pitch. Suitors will monitor his progress ahead of the January window.

4 - Learning lessons 

Earlier in the campaign, Johannes Hoff Thorup reflected that more changes should have been made sooner to protect some players' workload. 

That exacerbated City's injury situation, and this week, Thorup has been more proactive with both changes within matches and from the off—shuffling his pack to manage the load of Anis Ben Slimane and Ben Chrisene ahead of this encounter. 

Slimane's situation perfectly epitomised the slight change of approach, with the Tunisian midfielder starting Tuesday's game from the bench before starting this encounter. Both helped up his performance levels in shorter bursts despite a high-profile error for Luton's opener. 

Even replacing Borja Sainz, Emiliano Marcondes and Ante Crnac in the closing stages to afford them some vital rest is important. 

Thorup is aided by a stronger squad that has been bolstered by players returning from their setbacks, that has made the necessary rotation a possibility. 

With Josh Sargent, Jose Cordoba, Liam Gibbs, and Gabe Forsyth still to drop into the mix, this squad is feeling stronger and fitter with every passing game. It is now up to Thorup and City's coaching, medical, and performance team to manage the load effectively during the busiest stage of the season. 

Even with illness in the camp, that spread to coach Jack Wilshere and even Thorup himself during the week, City masterminded this banana skin expertly. 

Onel Hernandez made an impact from the bench in Norwich City's victory over Luton. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

5 - The Chaos Theory

So much of what Johannes Hoff Thorup is trying to build at Norwich City is about precision, control and positional discipline.

Those are not words naturally associated with Onel Hernandez, who is often an agent of chaos when dropped into Championship matches. Under the Dane, he has been the equivalent of revving a chainsaw into a chorus of classical music.

There have been long-running debates about Hernandez’s level of output and the need for improvement in that area – but his cutback to Sainz was evidence of his ability when in the correct situation.

Hernandez had just 15 touches in his bright 29-minute cameo and made three progressive carries; only Jack Stacey recorded more throughout the contest. Only four City players had more touches in the penalty area.

He feels like the antipode of Thorup’s beliefs, yet Hernandez looked as effective as during the early stages of David Wagner’s reign, a spell that earned him his current City contract.

There is a bigger picture to the debate. With Amankwah Forson yet to properly ignite on the right and Liverpool loanee Kaide Gordon and Christian Fassnacht not included in the matchday squad, a starting right-wing slot is up for grabs.

Opposites attract – and Thorup seems to like Hernandez’s bull in a china shop approach. The question now is whether that is converted into starts.

Johannes Hoff Thorup is searching for three straight Championship wins for the first time. (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

6 - Opportunity knocks

After consecutive Championship wins, Johannes Hoff Thorup dared to label his Norwich City side as back after the injury crisis that led to three straight defeats prior to the November international break.

With players returning and some tactical tweaks, Norwich have rediscovered their form and appear to have turned a corner after a perfect week of Carrow Road action.

Marcelino Nunez reminded City of the impact he can make on Championship matches, whilst Ashley Barnes continued to build up his minutes after a lengthy injury absence.

Norwich are now hoping to discover some consistency to help fuel the wave of optimism that has returned to the fanbase in the last week as they prepare for trips to struggling pair QPR and Portsmouth.

Those sides sit 23rd and 24th respectively and have taken the fewest points in the division at home. QPR are yet to win at Loftus Road while Portsmouth’s only win came last month against Preston.

If City want to enter the discussion to be a top-six candidate, then extracting plenty of points in the next two matches must be a priority, especially with a double-header against Burnley and Sunderland to come thereafter.