Leaderboard

Lampard saw us twice last season and knew exactly the way we would play. We think we have good players and we have but they had better. Azpilacueta's pace caused us no end of problems and Aarons and Lewis just couldn't get in support so Buendia and Stiepermann looked for passes that weren't there. And the longer it went on the more we rushed our passes and the ball kept coming back. But we were a crossbar away from taking a point so I don't see where the pessimists are getting their ammunition from.

I informed Mrs R that it was an early kick off but still couldn't get out of the usual trawl round Sainsburies and M & S this morning. However I was able to escape eventually and by the time I got to CR at just after twelve, it was more than a touch on the warm side. It was same again for City and I was quietly pleased to see Chelsea were without Kante and Pedro. Every little bit helps when you play these teams who have such an embarrasment of riches. The opening exchanges were cagey with both sets of players playing some easy possession but when Chelsea came forward down their right there was plenty of time and space for Abrahams to get on the end of a perfect cross and slam a low first time shot past a startled Tim Krul. It was hugely disappointing to concede so easily but City weren't behind for long and it was lovely control from Buendia that made it. The little Argentine rode through a couple of tackles before combining with Todd Cantwell, and then Pukki as he surged into the box. Pukki might have had a go from the angle of the six yard line but clevely picked out Cantwell with a sharp pass and the City youngster made no mistake with a low effort through Arrizabalaga's legs. It was a lovely goal and one the pundits would rave about had it been scored by one of the big boys. For a while it was even steven but Chelsea definitely had the edge in quality and the home defence were often at full stretch. A goal was coming and it wasn't a surprise when City couldn't clear their lines in the seventeenth minute. Mount's speed and clever movement left him in the clear to rifle a shot past Krul from near the penalty spot. City were only attacking spasmodically and finding it difficult to deal with the visitors sharpness in midfield. It could easily have been 3-1 just before the half hour only for Krul to superbly deny Christiansen's powerful header with a instinctive palm over the bar. City seemed to get a second wind and came forward down the right. Cantwell cleverly dumied a pass that found Buendia in space and once again the little wizard timed his pass perfectly for Pukki to outpace a defender and fire a low angled shot that the keeper could only parry before finding the net to square things up again. It was now the home sides turn to dominate for a while and there was a big chance for them when Buendia's free kick was only parried by the Chelsea keeper. Hanley manage to get a shot in from the rebound but Arrizabalaga was able the block it and the ball was hoofed away. There were one or two other alarms for City as we ran up to half time but thankfully the defence held firm. It was a satisfactory half but you couldn't deny that Chelsea were asking most of the questions and this pattern of play became even more obvious as City were often at full stretch in the opening ten minutes of the second period. Hanley and Godfrey made important blocks and Krul had to punch a corner away under heavy pressure. As we came up to the hour mark Emmerson had loades of space and time on the right to hammer a shot that somehow Kru managed to grab and hold. It looked like City might be able to hold on and there were hopes of even more when Pukki found enough space for a strike on goal but the Chelsea keeper saved comfortably high to his right. City had been drawn a bit too far forward in that attack and when Chelsea broke forward the ball was played quickly to Abrahams who made room for himself before rapping a twenty yarder past Krul. It was hard for City now but Godfrey almost brough City back into the game with a strong run that was only with difficulty crowded out for a corner. When the cross came over it was Godfrey again with a storming header that clipped the bar and went over. With ten minutes left Farke went for a back three and took Trybull, Leitner and Stiepermann off, bringing on Vrancic, McClean and Srbeny. The home side piled forward but Chelsea looked comfortable and milked the time with a bit of gamesmanship with players falling over at every opportunity. Buendia managed to slide a ball across the visitors six yard line but unsurprisingly the legs were beginning to go by this time. There were a few boo's at the final whistle, hopefully only for Chelsea's time wasting because I thought the boys gave everything but there was little doubt that it was the visitors who had the edge in class. My MOM, Ben Godfrey, also outstanding contributions from Cantwell, Leitner and Lewis. Buendia was brilliant in flashes. A fair result but we always knew it would be hard against the class teams.

Grant didn’t play badly today, and I disagree that he is a ‘truly limited footballer’. He’s perfectly fine on the ball, and can get the odd headed goal via corners, but through no fault of his own he just lacks a little mobility and pace sadly, which for me are his only weaker points, and unfortunately that’s what seems to catch him out 9/10 based on what I’ve seen. Own goal giveaway can, and does, happen to any player - Grant was very unfortunate there, happens to the ‘best’ too.

The sense of entitlement beggars belief, twelve months ago we struggled to get a point at 1p5wich, here we are now having played the European Champions and the Europa Cup Winners and you're throwing one of our players under the bus. Shameful 👎

We set up to go toe-to-toe with Chelsea, trusting our collective methodology over their individual talents. No shame in Chelsea slightly having the edge over us today, we gave our best and there wasn’t a lot in it. We played some brilliant football at times and had them on the back foot with quality football. Not shutting spaces, shutting the game down and spoiling to create an equality, but genuinely trusting our football to compete with them. A great effort from young, vibrant, talented players,playing highly intelligent, well-drilled, fluid football. I’m not sure what more can be asked . Parma

My irony meter just broke.

Lost without Leach! Most important single he's ever made.

We are a bit of a one man team though. We’d be lost without Stokes.

But it's a percentage of the profit, so a percentage of £50-odd million, not the full £80m.

So...you're skeptical of the rumour then?

Tillo is waveneys alter ego and vice versa, that's why he defends him, as normally he would not defend that kind of trolling. Makes a change for him, you know, time off from ' researching ' players wives.

I don't think the man with the ears - that make his head look like the FA Cup - even mentioned our existence. Smug overpaid tossers, all of them

Ah the good old 'Waveny goes to games so his trolling is a-ok' argument.

Vorsprung durch technic......

Godfrey reminds me of Vincent Company. Probably totally wrong to compare him to anyone, but he is more powerful than Rio Ferdinand and loves to get forwards at least once a game - and every time he does he causes problems for the opposition. He was excellent again yesterday and nearly single handedly got us back in it with his determination and spirit.

(2)?... don't be shy, say what you mean, which 2? Marco and Hanley? Funny that last season it was Todd and Krul, crucified by some on here even though we went on to win the title. You may ultimately be proved right, but we've just played 2 of the best sides in Europe with a Team of kids, freebies and journeymen and you're picking holes. ...a little perspective please.

....but if all he's going to do is criticize and complain perhaps he should give up his ticket and give it to somebody who will actually support the Team. ....not asking too much is it?

Thing is, if they'd analysed our defending you'd be moaning they weren't being positive enough about us.

Probably a very good reason why he wasn’t. Thats all 😉

YAWN Who cares how much MOTD talk about us. Every lower table team seems to complain the media don't care about us. When we do amazing things they do notice. Example Pukki last week the media have been all over us because of him all week... stands to reason when we loose to Chelsea and it's their first win of the season they will be the topic of conversation rather than us.

Time for a bit of realism. We've just come up with an inexperienced team with loads of young talent who have been thrust into the PL and having to learn as they go. The same squad that took us up. Our main objective is to stay in the division if we can. So a long negative post pointing out how our young stars and forth choice centre half fell one goal short of a multi million pound top six teams is singularly unhelpful and totally counterproductive. You'll need to get used to it OP as, surprise surprise, it's going to be a tough season. We have enough quality to survive in my opinion and I think we will we improve as we go along but it's going to be tough and we will need luck with injuries if we're going to succeed. What we could do with though is some recognition of how well we have done with the resources we have and support that cuts the team some slack while they are on this learning curve.

Todd Cantwell, the first Norfolk-born player to score a Premier League goal for Norwich City since January 2005. 😀

Just for you Jobsworth.

I was very disappointed with Chris Sutton punditry on BT yesterday his comments were imo diabolical and he sung Chelsea’s praises all match .. You wouldn’t think he played for us once upon a time ago !

It was hot and we’re playing a top side, Chelsea have been unlucky with results until today. Pressing in such conditions is always going to be difficult especially if it’s isolated and not controlled as a unit…. It wasn’t. Hopefully, we won’t play that badly too often, we didn’t turn up for the final 65 minutes, excepting for Ben Godfrey – simply magnificent. The team has plenty of development in it. Sure, we will get better. We want to play out from the back, but that relies on us having options, our midfield have to be available and they weren’t, that was torrid for the defenders…. Alternatively, we need Godfrey to bring it forward through the press but that leaves us exposed, especially with Hanley’s lack of pace through the middle. We ended up having to kick the ball long (Krul kicked long regularly second half) and that’s definitely not good (or our way!). Pukki will win nothing in the air and we need him running in dangerous areas, not chasing balls all day long. Even if he then gets the ball, the rest of the lads are too far back to support. We play controlled possession based football with players in the right positions to receive the ball and pass / move…. When we’ve broken the press the interchanging is then possible. Unfortunately, we lost our shape mid-way through the first half we started playing more direct passes forward when players weren’t in position (Buendia, Cantwell and Steipermann having been forced too deep), they were out of position and so it broke down, the options weren’t there. What we needed to do was pass sideways, more often just to gain some control and retain the shape and from there we can then start to work the intricate passes with our forward 3 in position like we did for the goals. We lost that as a collective but too many players were off form. Buendia, particularly is not up to speed and looks to be struggling. Great pass for Pukki, but overall not enough and some passes were very odd today. No doubt, Emi will come good but unfortunately, Marco is not Premier League level, he definitely deserved his chance but sadly he neither has the anticipation or most crucially the touch for this level. Examples being his silly pull back that should have earned a booking, constant mis-control and loss of possession… also conceded a penalty we got away with. It’s argued he gives us presence in the air but does he? We play on the deck generally but when forced long as today, Steipermann was deep doing defensive work so wouldn’t be an outlet anyway. Godfrey was immense but Hanley is costing us. It’s far too easy to get by him, he doesn’t get close enough and it’s hard to see how he is leading by example…. Godfrey evidently carries that role. If there was anything to get in the way of, it was Godfrey’s body, not Hanley. In both home games, the opposition have scored when the assist has been played whilst Hanley was facing Krul, not the ball. Our central players today Trybull and Leitner are crucial to this way and they had very little influence. Losing shape across the park made it impossible. Think it’s fair to say we got lucky with VAR today, a number of decisions could have gone against us. They said we were naïve at Liverpool, we’ll take that knowing it was a free hit but a good performance today and we could have won that game. A free hit wasted! If we’re going to play our way, (the way we did in small parts early on) we have to keep the shape, we have to play with more control and intensity, giving less respect. We have to react immediately when we concede free-kicks, we were slow at recovering, we have to be concentrated in the fine margin moments…. and we have to select the best team. Being so open with Hanley’s lack of pace (and probably Klose similarly), we can’t afford to get exposed regularly like today. The sooner Klose and Zimmermann are fit the better and what’s happened to Amadou! We looked tired and given the heat, it made sense to make some changes much earlier, especially as we were not that competitive anyway and the changes may have had some affect. We didn’t play our way, Chelsea just took advantage and the victory was comfortable. We’d have struggled against any EPL opposition on that showing. Bad day in our Lounge, no doubt they’ll put it right against West Ham and Man. City.

yep Hanley did look a bit out of sorts at times - but did anyone expect him to be 'automatic choice' as he has been for your Hanley I will give you Cantwell Krul certainly kept the score down, and will keep us in the PL Pukki has already hit 5, which if continued would give 63 come May... yep, 63 there's a fair few yet to be seen or tested in the PL and if last season was anything to go on they will improve no end and some on here may be able to cast their minds back 12 months when this forum was clogged up with the whining willies demanding the head of Farke, prophezing relegation and generally making Private Frazer appear as joyful as Tigger on speed finally as KG said we were a crossbar width from a point we'll be ok

Im sorry, but did that story really p*ss anyone else off? Why the f*ck would we want Jack Butland? Krul has been great so far this season, and Fahrman is untried, and by all accounts a very good keeper should we need him. Why the f*ck would a club that spent £750,000 this summer, with a clear club philosophy go and sp*nk £25m we havent got on a keeper we dont need. Just lazy journalism that stinks of ignorance about our club. We are one of the 20 elite clubs in this country and deserve a better level of informed comment from people whose profession it is to know about stuff like this. It angers me that people earn a living from such utter tripe

Three clear penalties in our game, Man City game and Spurs game all missed. Var isn’t being used correctly here, it’s as if the refs are not giving major decisions based on the knowledge it will go to var, then var is backing the referee who’s effectively bottled the decision

That’s not my point, I know all teams will waste time near the end of a match but Chelsea were ott with it and the ref did nothing. It’s obviously nothing to do with var either so big teams still get treated differently by refs. Yes, but whoever was on var duty today decided it wasn’t, as I said, it’s still subjective so decisions won’t always be right

VAR doesn’t really change anything as it’s still subjective. It’s also there just for clear and obvious errors in the big decisions. Chelsea quite happily spent all of injury time at the end of the match wasting time and pretending to be injured and the ref did nothing, which means in general the “big” teams will still get the favourable decisions.

Too much inconsistency with VAR. Why on earth wasn’t that a pen for Man City just now?? An obvious error but understandably not seen by the ref, should be overturned. We’d be fuming if that wasn’t given, and decisions like that could be pivotal for us, certainly a lot more than for city (who’ve just scored again) VAR only as good as those using it and the guidelines they’ve been given. It’s the new rules and advice given to refs and those controlling VAR that I find baffling.

I'm 99% sure that Atkinson would've given a foul had there been no VAR. He was just using VAR to be certain.

This is exactly how it was for me. I just watched the ref instead of celebrating. Will we get used to it in time? Or will we always long for the days when all that was needed was a crafty peep for the linesman's flag.

There you go with the 'scapegoat' again 😉

Proper elite...

Three very entertaining games into a Prem season and here we have condemnation, talk of system change and lack of spending. How were we doing three games into last season? Hanley had to play because of injuries and everyone knew he was back up only but he has played and that is that. We can't escape the fact that we cannot have a squad with four players for every position who each cost a fortune. We do not need to change the system. We can cope. Why would we want to give probably better teams than us, more possession than they already have? Don't listen Daniel

Just look at Leicester's title winning season. They weren't taken seriously until they lifted the trophy.

To be fair, Aarons was a disgrace yesterday. 😉

We don’t need two Godfreys we just need Zimmerman back from injury. Our best defender from last season and a natural leader. Yes we will still concede goals, it’s the PL coupled with our attacking approach.

Yes the young man is doing well, has grown up mentally and physically it seems. And yesterday he got the goal we all wanted to see him get - no hanging back, instead a determined run into the six yard box to beat his covering defender and put the ball into the back of the net. He isn't James Morrison, but he is Todd Cantwell, and I look forward to seeing whet else he can bring.

He gave the goal. Didn't blow for a free-kick and then made the signal for an overturned decision after the review. Pitiful decision from a pretty pitiful referee. Amazingly, Norwich fan and Guardian writer Barry Glendenning was saying how ridiculous VAR was for ruling out the goal. I don't know, but would assume he's been a vocal VAR critic so we were seeing cognitive dissonance in action, but to see a Norwich fan saying they thought that was a legitimate goal was truly bizarre.

He needs to go to Specsavers, Todd is easily one of the most improved players from last season

Thanks for the report Ricardo That second half was a great example to anyone watching why we need to play our usual game and not sit a bit deeper. We were slightly better defensively, but still open and much less proficient in attack as a result. It didn't look like instruction, we were just pinned back and I think the players decided to stand off a bit but it showed what would happen if we approach every game like that. We remind me at the moment of us at the start of last year which gives me hope we'll improve even more. We were very open at the start of last year, then after a few personal changes and a settling in period we got to grips with the defensive side of the game much more while still retaining our attacking verve. I like Trybull but I don't class him as a DM, more a hard working deep lying playmaker and cover for Leitner and I think we need Amadou or Tettey in there next game. Plus Hanley out for Klose. I rate him higher than most but i don't think him and Godfrey is working as a partnership for whatever reason and if one has to be dropped then it's obviously Hanley. Something has to change in that area because if we'd have been more solid in this position we'd have probably drawn today and kept a clean sheet v Newcastle. Needs to be addressed asap With a more solid base once Buendia and Stiepermann find form we'll really start looking the business. I doubt we'll keep many clean sheets, but I think we'll look a lot less vulnerable. Could be a mad season where we finish with no clean sheets in the league but our striker bags over 20 top flight goals. Gonna be interesting that's for sure!

For the record, Godfrey was very good again today. He's going to command a huge transfer fee one day.

I'm pretty confident that putting either Klose or Zimmermann Exactly this. Changing Hanley for Zimm or Klose will make next to no difference. It's the strategy of the team and defensive behaviour generally that needs to improve. As excellent as Cantwell, Buendia & Steipermann are and have been, they do often rush the play and lose the ball in advanced postions that seems to leave us wide open for the counter attack. A counter at pace and power simply overwhelms Leitner and Trybull (and Mclean). Players good in close quarters, but simply not quick or physical enough to power in and halt play. It's knife through butter stuff sometimes. Yes it was Chelsea, and yes we were still very good in spells. But lets not kid ourselves. We lacked any real control and always looked vulnerable. And this isn't a direct reflection in the step up of opposition, we had similar defensive issues last season. I'm not suggesting we change our brand of football, which is a joy to watch at times, but we need to find a way of controlling the game for at least short periods, and give ourselves a chance to re-set and recover. We're more than good enough on the ball to be able to do this. Had we done this today I think we definitely get a point. We badly missed the directness of Hernandez, and the controlling influence of Vrancic. Easy to say now, I know. But Hernandez gets defneders busy and on the back foot, whilst Vrancic can hold onto the ball and doesn't rush a fancy Buendia/Cantwell flick. I think Vrancic, Roberts and Amadou all need to be tried in the not too distant future.

Outside of the 5 or 6 biggest teams in the league no other team is likely to have a 4th choice centre back that could be considered "very good" at this level. Just feels like people are stating the obvious and being unfair to Hanley as an individual. He knew where he stood this season which is why he almost signed for a Championship club. He's all we've got fit, we know Klose and hopefully Zimmermann are better. Perhaps in January he'll complete that move and we'll upgrade, in the meantime he's one of ours and we support him whenever he's on the pitch. This club has made giant strides towards being one about togetherness and winning and losing as a club. We could carry on in that direction or we could start threads slagging off our players.

Klose has to come in for the West Ham game and I’m sure he will. I’m afraid Hanley is a good Championship defender but won’t make the step up to the PL

Jobsworth seems to have morphed into Knobsworth