After a dramatic Boxing Day round and that 3-3 draw with Nottingham Forest, Norwich welcome Derby to Carrow Road for this weekend’s big Championship match.
This is a must win for both sides in their respective promotion battles, especially with Leeds United now three points clear of the Canaries and Derby trying to cling onto a Play-Off spot.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesNorwich City will be without winger, Emi Buendia after he was subbed during the Boxing Day thriller with an ankle injury.
Jamal Lewis (hamstring) and Christopher Zimmerman are both doubts whilst Moritz Leitner is definitely absent with an ankle injury.
Matt Jarvis and Kenny McLean are close to returning from ankle injuries alongside Carlton Morris (knee) but unlikely to feature here.
Derby have Bradley Johnson available after the midfielder completed a five match ban.
Tom Lawrence is a doubt for Frank Lampard’s side as he struggles to overcome an ankle injury.
Curtis Davies (Achilles), Craig Forsyth (knee) and Martin Olsson (knee) are all ruled out for the foreseeable future alongside Scott Malone who has a groin injury.
Form
Norwich are now unbeaten in 18 of last 19 league outings but have kept just one clean sheet in their last five.
At home, the Canaries’ five match winning run came to an end in midweek with the three all draw against Nottingham Forest, although they had conceded in all but one of those five games.
Derby meanwhile saw their four match unbeaten run ended last time out but are winless in their last three.
The Rams however have scored at least once in six of their last seven outings since a 3-0 home loss to Aston Villa last month.
Stat Attack
- Norwich have avoided in three of last five meetings with Derby (W1, D2, L2).
- At Carrow Road, Norwich has kept just one clean sheet in last six home games against Derby.
- This fixture has already been played twice this calendar year with both games finishing 1-1. The last time that such an occasion happened was in 2003 when Derby won first game then Norwich won latter two.
- Norwich have had five different goal scorers in last three matches with only Marco Stiepermann’s goal coming in first half.
- Three of the four goals scored so far this calendar year in this fixture has come in second half.
Prediction
We should see goals here given the form of both teams but Norwich tend to grow throughout match, so am therefore backing them to nick it late on.
Prediction: Norwich 2-1 Derby