Norwich levelled just before the half-hour mark when captain Russell Martin netted with his second bite of the cherry after his initial header was saved by Butland, but when Stoke failed to clear their lines Russell was played through to fire past the keeper.
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Although the Swiss global was banned for Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Spurs, Afellay and his high-profile team-mates showed they are willing to the dirty work by rolling up their sleeves to fight back from two goals down.
The last time that Norwich won as many as two Premier League games in August within the same season was in 1993-94 (3).
The amended law which the Premier League felt compelled to clarify following Liverpool’s defeat of Bournemouth had nothing to do with this week’s decision. At the age of 21, Redmond needs to add consistency to his game and become wiser. He’s scored goals at Championship level, and he’s got pace and power. Norwich will be looking to get a first home win and this is a tough game but one that is definitely winnable. “If the Coates family wanted to, we could compete with all but the top four financially, even if the pull of our small club is still in need of growth”.
The Canaries’ goalscoring midfielder and his fellow England Under-21 worldwide progressed through the ranks at Birmingham before their careers took them away from St Andrews ahead of this afternoon’s first ever competitive duel.
“He’s a good player in his own right”.
Hughes could hand a debut to record signing Xherdan Shaqiri, but must also decide how much of a role to give the likes of Bojan Krkic, Joselu and Stephen Ireland. Norwich will be wary of Arnautovic as he can be unplayable on his day, while his strength and height make him a different proposition to most wingers in the Premier League.
Norwich boss Alex Neill is expected to stick with an unchanged starting line-up and remains without Martin Olsson (shoulder) and Kyle Lafferty (knee). Striker Peter Odemwingie (hamstring) is still sidelined along with defender Ryan Shawcross (back).
It will be a physical game, especially in the midfield areas, but both teams have exciting attacking players.
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Both teams have been known to float around the middle of the table in the previous years but this year they might try to change their luck. “I think it was the way I was brought up”.
