Norwich City will be aiming to keep their faint Premier League dreams alive when they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The Canaries remain six points adrift at the bottom of the table, although they do have a game in hand over second-bottom Aston Villa.
Still, after losing both their league games since the restart, Norwich are running out of time to save their season. Daniel Farke’s side need to string some wins together, and fast!
Norwich were beaten 3-0 by Southampton in their first game back, and despite performing better against Everton, the Canaries suffered back-to-back defeats.
Farke’s men gave their all against a weakened Manchester United outfit in the FA Cup on Saturday. But once again, it wasn’t enough to prevent defeat.
In fact, Man Utd racked up a whopping 37 shots and dominated the possession at Carrow Road. Norwich’s sole goal against the Red Devils came from their only shot on target.
Meanwhile, Arsenal enjoyed a 2-1 victory over Sheffield United at the weekend to progress into the FA Cup semi-finals. Nicolas Pepe netted his second goal since the restart before Dani Ceballos snatched an injury-time winner.
After losing to Manchester City and Brighton, the Gunners appear to be back on track. They claimed a 2-0 win against Southampton in their previous league game before beating Sheff Utd in the FA Cup.
Still, Arsenal remain 11 points behind fourth-place Chelsea, and hopes of playing in next season’s Champions League have all but faded.
Norwich managed to secure a 2-2 draw with Arsenal in the reverse fixture earlier in the campaign, but the Canaries haven’t beaten the Gunners since 2012.
Arsenal are unbeaten in their previous seven meetings with Norwich – claiming four wins and three draws during that period.
Looking at the team news, Arsenal could be without as many as eight players on Wednesday. Most importantly, first-choice goalkeeper Bernd Leno is likely to miss the rest of the season with ligament damage.
Norwich will be without Timm Klose after the defender was sent off last time out. Grant Hanley, Christoph Zimmermann, and Sam Byram remain long-term absentees.
The Canaries will be fighting for their lives from now until the end of the season, but Arsenal should have enough quality to get the job done on Wednesday.
Forebet predicts that Arsenal will score over 1.5 goals on their way to victory. A clean sheet is also on the cards for the home side.