West Ham Utd 2-0 Norwich City (12/1/22)

[Albie Beck]

Is this being shown on TV tonight?

Not live in the UK, but Sky are showing it in full after the Spuds/Chelsea Caribou SF.

So if you want to go the full Likely Lads* you can...



* you'll need to be at least 65 to remember though

[Roby]

I do think we'll win tonight but don't think it will be the drubbing some people are forecasting. A comfortable 2-0 will be fine. Mind you, if we do score early then that could all change.

Agree completely, they look better since Smith took over and are battling more although still short of quality.

Can see this being a 2-1 win but I would still put out a full strength line up - hopefully Antonio can score against them again.

[TommyHammer]

Don't think we should be getting ahead of ourselves here. Of course expecting a win but we rarely give teams a tonking when expected. The last was probably Norwich at their place when Antonio scored four.

[sutts07]

We put Watford to the sword a couple of weeks ago.
That was expected.

[sendô]

I'll be happy enough with a 1-0 win, but I really do feel like we've clicked back into gear after our pre-Christmas wobble and Norwich are arriving just at the right time missing some key players.

[Bubbles Fortuna]

He also posted this.

Depends when their daily test is though right?

You might take it at 8am

[sutts07]

The agency who look after Soucek will have no doubt posted that, or had a social media agency create it and post it for them.
Will have most likely been an automated post that was set up a day or two ago so I wouldn't read too much into it.

[BobbyMooreLower]

We've not really dominated a team at home all season, apart from against the 10 men of Leicester.

Whereas away from home we've comfortably beaten Watford, Villa & Newcastle. It was a similar story last season, we very rarely dominate a game of football at the bowl regardless of opposition.

Based on that i'm going to go for a 1-0/2-0 hammers win.

[Kludgehammer]

Just had a quick trawl of a couple of Norwich forums - it would be fair to say that they're not overly optimistic.

Back in the good old days, with us in some form and opposition woeful, this would be a nailed on Away win - hopefully, we can show up and score a sackful instead.

[sutts07]

We've not really dominated a team at home all season, apart from against the 10 men of Leicester.

We have not played ANY of the current bottom seven at home yet this season.
Not one of them.

[prophet:marginal]

This is the starting 11 put out in NCFC's last league fixture:

Angus Gunn
Sam Byram
Jacob Sorensen
Ben Gibson
Dimitrios Giannoulis
Billy Gilmour
Kenny McLean
Przemyslaw Placheta
Pierre Lees-Melou
Christos Tzolis
Adam Idah

I have had a chat with one or two Palace fans who attended the game, at Selhurst Park, on 28.12.21 and the consensus was it was likely to be the easiest 3 points they secure all season.

Norwich have scored 8 goals in 19 matches, which is 50% fewer than Burnley, who are second-worst.

They are also conceding at a rate of >2 goals a game.

[Turtlecharityracer]

Big game as teams like Brighton, Wolves and Leicester catching up.
Norwich and Watford are the 2 worst teams in the league, so must be looking for a convincing win.

[hammers92]

I have had a chat with one or two Palace fans who attended the game, at Selhurst Park, on 28.12.21 and the consensus was it was likely to be the easiest 3 points they secure all season.

I’m blaming you at 10pm tonight

[paulhs1]

We cannot take anything for granted but by the same token I think we can afford a little bit of squad rotation for this one.

Areola
Fredericks
Rice
Diop
Johnson
Soucek
Noble
Lanzini
Vlasic
Bowen
Antonio

Areola in goal and move Rice to centre back to give Dawson a breather and move Noble to midfield.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

Big game as teams like Brighton, Wolves and Leicester catching up.
Norwich and Watford are the 2 worst teams in the league, so must be looking for a convincing win.

Wolves and Leicester have exactly the same number of points as we do in their last 5.
Brighton have one more.

But yeah...all breathing down our necks.

[Diogenes]

My worry is, the longer the match goes on without us scoring or (heaven forbid) Norwich scoring, nervousness will set in (players and supporters) that effects our performance overall. Treat it like a match against a top 6 side (players and supporters) and we will be fine. Smith will have them well organised and have a plan to nick a goal or two.

[sendô]

We've not really dominated a team at home all season, apart from against the 10 men of Leicester.

Whereas away from home we've comfortably beaten Watford, Villa & Newcastle. It was a similar story last season, we very rarely dominate a game of football at the bowl regardless of opposition.

We've not played any of the bottom teams at home yet. The other issue is Moyes sets us up in a low/mid block system where we don't really start to press the opposition until they get into our half, which sets us for a counter attack. This is less effective against teams who do not come to attack away from home.

Our recent relative success means that teams don't see us as a game where they can have a go and nick a win now, they instead adapt their play to nullify our strengths.

We need to be able to play a high pressing, intense game on occassions like this. Get on top of them early, get early goals and then control the match. We've not really done it yet, but we need to start doing it if we want to stay at the top by regularly dispatching teams lower down the league.

[norse]

This is the starting 11 put out in NCFC's last league fixture:

Angus Gunn
Sam Byram
Jacob Sorensen
Ben Gibson
Dimitrios Giannoulis
Billy Gilmour
Kenny McLean
Przemyslaw Placheta
Pierre Lees-Melou
Christos Tzolis
Adam Idah

I have had a chat with one or two Palace fans who attended the game, at Selhurst Park, on 28.12.21 and the consensus was it was likely to be the easiest 3 points they secure all season.

Norwich have scored 8 goals in 19 matches, which is 50% fewer than Burnley, who are second-worst.

They are also conceding at a rate of >2 goals a game.

Billy Gilmour is now injured. Weakens them

[sutts07]

Big game as teams like Brighton, Wolves and Leicester catching up.

You are looking the wrong way... a win here, followed by a win against Leeds on Sunday will put us 4th, 5 points ahead of Arsenal and 6 points ahead of Spurs before they play each other later in the day.

Time for us to make a statement. We have to believe in ourselves. This is a very talented group of players. We are in and around the top four despite us yet to play ANY of the current bottom seven at home this season.

[sutts07]

Billy Gilmour is now injured. Weakens them

Depends what way you view it... he may have been causing unrest in the squad. Dropping him out of the equation might actually help them as a team.