Paddy's Pointers: Five observations from City 0-5 Arsenal

1. In the bleak midwinter

Norwich City fans may have turned up at Carrow Road in hope rather than expectation of festive cheer. But this was the heaviest home defeat of the season.

Or another dispiriting stroll for, albeit, a super confident Arsenal who looked in the mood to sustain their bid to be in the mix in the upper echelons of the Premier League.

But after the manner Aston Villa tip toed out of Norfolk with a comfortable three points in their back pocket prior to that recent West Ham call off, those who did fancy a Boxing Day hit would have expected more energy, more endeavour and more intensity from Dean Smith’s injury-ravaged side.

There was not just a quality gap, Arsenal hunted the ball better and were so much quicker in thought and deed. That may come down to confidence or quality or both. But this was fresh evidence Smith has inherited what looks mission impossible.

Norwich have played two games more than Watford, who occupy the final survival slot at present, and are three points adrift. They have now scored once in six games, and that defensive vulnerability which was routinely thrown in Daniel Farke’s direction remains prevalent under his predecessor.

There will be no white towel, there is no downing of tools from an honest group under Smith's command, but Norwich look so far short of what is required.

The depressing sight of home supporters heading for the exits after the third, fourth and fifth Arsenal goals hit the back of the net was the just the most visible representation this feels like another desperate top flight tour.

2. Hollow words

When Bukayo Sako’s opener rolled past Angus Gunn, the television pictures from behind the goal left nothing to the imagination. Kenny McLean verbally, and with the whishing of his arms, delivered a stinging rebuke to Ozan Kabak for his poor short pass intended for the marked Max Aarons tight to the right touchline, that triggered a flowing Arsenal counter finished by the England international.

Suffice to say, McLean was not offering words of encouragement but admonishment for such a soft concession for a club languishing at the foot of the Premier League and desperate for a leg up.

Thankfully for Kabak, there was no television close ups of the Scot when he later bundled over Alexandre Lacazette for a penalty converted by the Frenchman.

But Smith himself remarked, after an encouraging opening three games on his watch had yielded five points, his biggest takeaway was a sense his new group were starting to believe they belonged in such exalted company. Not on the evidence of the downward spiral since.

We know the mitigation stands, as each fresh pre-match bulletin ends with a list of the walking wounded or those ruled out on Covid-related grounds. But any whiff of belief stirring inside the Norwich dressing room appears to have evaporated. Getting that back is a far greater challenge for Smith than finding 11 starting players to stick on his team sheet.

3. Sorry Sargent

The US international has needed those broad shoulders to carry the growing criticism aimed at a striker purchased for big money by City’s standards in the summer who has failed to find the target in the Premier League.

In his defence, Smith has tended to use him in a wider berth rather than down the middle as a replacement for Teemu Pukki or auxiliary support. In that role, it is no exaggeration to state his energy and endeavour turned Smith’s first game in charge at Carrow Road against Southampton.

But asked to do something of a similar job against the Gunners in front of Aarons he was a long way short against the marauding Kieran Tierney.

The Scottish international is one of the best in the business in the top flight at bursting from deep and offering that overlapping threat and quality delivery down the left. But there had been numerous warnings and escapes for the Canaries when he again ran off the back of Sargent to coolly guide an angled finish beyond Gunn, to double his side’s lead a minute prior to the interval.

The former Werder Bremen forward did emerge after the break, but tellingly on the opposite flank for the opening 15 minutes of the second half in a positional switch with Przemyslaw Placheta.

Sargent was one of those in the camp last week exhibiting Covid symptoms, although his testing returned negative results.

But there was a lethargy to his play which Tierney ruthlessly exposed. For the second Arsenal goal it was as if the move was happening in slow motion around him.

It will do nothing to endear Sargent to a fan base who can see a player trying his best but question is his best good enough. Certainly in the Premier League.

4. Pitiful

A five star Arsenal attacking display only magnified how dire Norwich were again in the final third. Gunners’ fans hailed Aaron Ramsdale as ‘England’s number one’ but he had no chance to add to his showreel at Carrow Road.

City were toothless again. Pukki cut a frustrated figure, with neither Placheta or Sargent offering any quality, and a desperate lack of back up from central midfield or wide areas from the likes of Max Aarons or Brandon Williams.

To have scored a paltry eight league goals by Boxing Day, five of them from Pukki, is an embarrassingly poor return.

The previous Premier League tilt ended in an abject relegation but there were still periods when that Norwich vintage looked capable of scoring goals, and causing top flight opponents a murmur or two.

It is by no means the only issue Smith needs to address but without a remedy, Norwich will sink without trace even quicker than they did two seasons ago.

The finances are simply not available to go again in the January window. Not without a headline exit to fund any incomings. The answers it would appear lie within. Whether they are the ones Norwich fans wish to hear or not is another matter entirely.

5. A stocking filler

Not the outcome he would have wanted when his head hit the pillow on Christmas night, but this was a landmark game for boyhood City fan Gunn.

A first Premier League appearance for the green and yellow, and actually his first top flight outing since that record-equalling 9-0 humbling while in goal for Southampton against Leicester City in October 2019. A defeat which appeared to spin his Saints’ career in a downward direction.

Gunn got his original move to the south-coast after a top notch campaign for the Canaries in the Championship. He earned his long-awaited top flight recall here to a positive Covid diagnosis for Tim Krul.

Gunn would clearly have not wished to get his opportunity in such circumstances but he will start again at Crystal Palace, barring any unforeseen twist between now and then. Possibly Leicester away as well, depending on how long Krul is in isolation.

There could be no fairytale comeback, given the quality of Arsenal’s finishes and the lack of protection from those in front. Gunn returned to Norfolk because he felt this offered him the best chance to re-ignite his career as a regular starter.

He must make the most of any chance he has to give Smith a selection dilemma of the welcome kind when Krul is ready to return.