Paddy Davitt delivered his Burnley verdict after Norwich City's 2-0 Premier League victory.
1. Better. Connected
Much has been made of the perceived rupture between fans and football team in another arduous Premier League tour. Many Norwich supporters probably pulled the curtains back on Sunday morning and wished for Monday.
There was a crushing sense for too many Burnley would turn up, swat Dean Smith’s fragile Norwich aside, and continue their part in a relegation scrap the Canaries had long since checked out of.
Set aside what this does or does not mean in the battle at the bottom. Norwich needed to re-connect and to provide those hard-pressed fans with something to believe in again. Something to be proud of, to cheer and holler and roar their team and their players to a rare top flight victory. They got it and more. Defensive resolve, attacking threat. Character, spirit and commitment.
Boil it down and that is all any Norwich fan wants. They know the degree of difficulty in trying to bridge the Premier League divide. They know it might be beyond them still from this parlous position.
But after all the low blows they deserve to bask. Burnley were decidedly average at the sharp end, and lacking in the zip you would have expected given their own struggles to stay up. Plus that comeback midweek win over Everton.
But this was about Norwich.
It was about a throaty chorus of ‘Yellows’ swirling around Carrow Road at the final whistle. It was about respite, if not revival.
2. Putting it all out there
Sam Byram put any thoughts of his own safety out of his head when he rose between Maxwell Cornet and Jay Rodriguez to bravely head clear inside his own six yard box, as the Clarets tried to find a way back into this contest.
It was brave beyond belief. All three players ended on the floor and in need of attention from the respective physio and medical teams.
Thankfully all three returned to their feet. But it underlined again despite the endless quest for results, or clean sheets or some semblance of attacking thrust, this is a group of Norwich players who do care, who do want to be better than Premier League also rans and, in many quarters, figures of derision.
Byram, more than most, knows what it means to be sidelined through injury after his lengthy hamstring related issues.
Perhaps he would not be human if somewhere deep in his consciousness was a desire to protect his body and prolong his injury-free return to the football pitch. He was not alone. Mathias Normann was left in a crumpled heap on numerous occasions. But this was not an individual offering, this was a collective show of resolve and fighting spirit and togetherness.
It would be much easier at present to listen to the outside forces who would tell you survival is a forlorn hope. But Norwich’s players did not perform like a side going through the motions.
3. No limits Normann
The disguise on the killer pass for Teemu Pukki to seal this win illustrated what a quality operator the Norwegian international is. It was a high class piece of execution – the vision and the touch right out of the top drawer - before the Finn did the rest.
That capped by some measure Normann’s best display since he returned to the fold, after pelvic-related festive surgery stalled his progress. Whatever the reasons for the sluggish, laboured efforts in recent weeks, paired alongside McLean in a screening role, he did that and more in his desire to get up and support the attacking urges of his team mates.
The peroxide-bleached Normann was a stand out performer when the sides ground out a goalless league draw at Turf Moor earlier in the season. At that stage he looked to be one of the leaders of the pack, one of the growing influences on a group who craved more than bumping along at the bottom of the Premier League.
But the season unravelled for both Normann and his latest employers when he was forced to succumb to the pain of a fitness problem that curtailed his bid for a headline role.
It may all still prove academic in the final analysis, in terms of Norwich’s league status, and with it any prospect of keeping Normann permanently at Carrow Road. But one can only hope this is the level he can maintain between now and what may prove to be his swansong against Tottenham in their final top flight game next month.
4. Marmite McLean
Smith hailed the Scot as his man-of-the-match for his all-action display. There was a big bear hug from his head coach at the mouth of the tunnel following the final whistle. A larger than life character, a huge personality in this Norwich collective but at the very highest level a player who divides opinion.
Perhaps not an even split, either, as this Premier League season followed the same depressing, downward spiral of McLean's first top flight tilt.
Daniel Farke labelled him ‘indispensable’ and his willingness to operate in a variety of different roles across the City midfield has been to his longer term detriment. McLean does not look the creative force you need to residually impact Premier League games.
But his energy and his drive, his athleticism and his robustness to do whatever he can for his team should equally not be discounted lightly. Smith certainly values such qualities.
Paired in tandem with Normann, and clearly with a brief to put out fires in front of City’s back four, he showed again he can be an asset in games at this level. Much will now be made of Billy Gilmour’s removal from the side through illness, and the transformative impact on the Norwich midfield with and without the ball.
That is a moot debate, but McLean in this screening role looks far more comfortable.
5. Vive la France
Pierre Lees-Melou comes from a country who know a thing or two about producing midfield talent. Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, N’Golo Kante. You get the idea. No slight is intended to say the 28-year-old import from Nice is not in the same class.
But for the opening 25 minutes of this contest he did a passable impression of a cross between the defensive instincts of Kante and the creation of a Platini.
This was his best spell in a green and yellow shirt. Smith’s re-deployment behind Pukki, with Normann and McLean the defensive insurance behind, afforded Lees-Melou the type of environment to probe.
The landmark Premier League goal was a highlight, arriving on cue with the instincts of a predatory forward to cushion a right-footer past Nick Pope via his left-hand post. But it was more in the manner he roamed forward and showed his quality on the ball, and understanding of the service Pukki craves.
The Finn has not looked the same player since Emi Buendia’s departure. That is not to suggest Lees-Melou is now the answer, but it was a cameo that suggested in the right setting he can influence games.
The standing ovation he got when he made way, as he teetered on the edge of possibly earning a second yellow card, told you what the home fans thought.
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