Norwich City will know that anything other than a win against Brighton & Hove Albion at Carrow Road on Saturday won’t be good enough.
The Canaries were torn apart 4-0 by Arsenal on Wednesday, making it three straight Premier League defeats since the restart.
In fact, Norwich have lost six of their previous seven league games, leaving them six points adrift at the bottom and seven points from safety.
It’s fair to say that Daniel Farke’s side have struggled to adapt to the demands of top-flight football. Not only are they the division’s lowest scorers, but their heavy defeat to Arsenal means they now also have the joint-worst defensive record in the league this term.
Simply put, Norwich have been nowhere near good enough at both ends of the pitch this season. Farke’s men need a minor miracle in order to beat the drop.
On the other hand, Brighton’s relegation fears have been eased by a couple of positive results in recent weeks. Of course, the 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester United last time out wasn’t pretty.
However, the Seagulls returned with a comeback victory over Arsenal before claiming an impressive draw against Leicester and now find themselves six points clear of the bottom three.
Despite only managing a single league win in 2020, seven draws since the turn of the year have kept Brighton afloat.
With their next two games against Liverpool and Manchester City, Brighton manager Graham Potter will surely view the trip to Norwich as a must-win.
Goals from Leandro Trossard and Shane Duffy handed Brighton a comfortable 2-0 win in the reverse fixture back in November. This is the two teams’ only top-flight meeting to date.
Both these teams have struggled for goals recently. Norwich have only managed to score one goal in their previous eight league games, while Brighton have netted once in their last five.
Norwich will be boosted by the return of Timm Klose from suspension, although defensive trio Grant Hanley, Christoph Zimmermann, and Sam Byram have been ruled out for the season through injury.
As for Brighton, Adam Webster and Steven Alzate are both in contention to return from injury. Potter has no fresh injury worries, though.
Both these sides are fighting for their lives, but there is no denying that Norwich need to the points more than Brighton.
Forebet predicts that Norwich will claim a much-needed victory on Saturday. A clean sheet could also be on the cards for the home side.