Norwich City Football Club – The underdogs bite back

English Premier League is back after the European games. Some of the awaited games were those of the big teams such as Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspurs, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, etc… Like me, their respective fans were extremely excited wondering who’s going to score among their best players and how many goals they would get, especially when they are playing against the ‘not-so-good’ teams in the League. As if they were already banking their scores at the expense of the underdogs. It’s a no-brainer that the objective is to strive and win every game and accumulate more points and goals to compete among each other to secure the Top spots in the League at the season end in May 2020 which brings rich rewards in the following season’s European competitions.

I’m a novice when it comes to football. I was made aware about ‘the beautiful game’ during the 2014 World Cup. But now I am more aware of the English Premier League that is heavily influenced by my football fanatic partner who was also a former football player himself. A year back, I had a fascination towards Spurs, then with Liverpool, followed by Manchester City. Of course everybody loves the winner!

When looking at this seasons Norwich vs. Manchester City game that was scheduled last Saturday, my partner who is from Norwich, England was apprehensive due to their previous history against Manchester City, about the possibility of Norwich being squashed being the underdog. After all Norwich had just been promoted to the Premier League this season. But not only that, it was due to the fact that eight of their key players were injured and unable to play in this “big” game.

Richard has predicted that the score would be at least 0-5 in favor of Manchester City – the current Premier League Champions and considering the long list of its key world class players. Even on their substitute bench, they still have good players that could intimidate their opponents. Some of Man City’s key players are Kun Aguero, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Gabriel Jesus, among others. We have seen from many of their previous games just how Man City easily beat their opponents. So I think Richard’s reaction was one of a long-time supporter experiencing heartbreak to such opponents. Oh ye of little faith (Lol!)

To me, a relatively new supporter, I had high hopes of the Norwich squad headed by their German manager, Daniel Farke, after having seen some of their games in the Championship last season. I always maintain that this squad has a bright future especially if the team, spearheaded by the wonderful striker Timu Pukki, plus excellent save by the towering Tim Krul, continues to play the kind of football they executed during the Championship. The performance on the day highlighted many of Norwich’s underrated players. The Argentinian Emiliano Buendia is typical of that and undoubtedly will have come to the notice of other Premiership managers. Bravo Buendia!

Actually Richard was correct with his figure when he dismissively said several days ago that it could be 5-0. If you sum up the final score, indeed it is 5, the only significant difference was that it is in favor of the Norwich team 3-2.