Norwich City vs. Chelsea: Tactical Preview

On Sunday, Norwich will welcome Chelsea to Carrow Road in what is sure to be a tough fixture for the Canaries. Chris Houghton’s side has only won two matches so far this season, although the latest of those wins came last week against Stoke City. Chelsea’s form has been relatively mixed so far, although they come into this match on the back of a 0-4 win against Steaua Bucharest in midweek.

Both teams possess very different styles of football. Chelsea possess a more attacking, passing style of play that looks to break down the opposition and relies on the creativity of the three attacking midfielders behind the striker. Mourinho said before the season began that he would look to instill an attacking brand of football into this new-look Chelsea, and so far fans have seen shades of what he is trying to implement, although Chelsea’s new-found style has been patchy.

Norwich, on the other hand, play a more direct, long-ball oriented game that doesn’t involve too many fancy passes and tricks and flicks. Both teams will be looking to play to their strengths and get the job done, although it’s safe to say that Chelsea are the favourites going into this particular match.

Despite being the home team, Norwich will look to sit back and let Chelsea play their natural game as Mourinho’s men are the superior side both on paper and on the field. The Canaries will look to hit Chelsea on the counter as often as possible so the Blues will have to make sure that they take their chances and kill off the game as soon as possible so that Norwich can’t cause them too many problems as the game goes on.

At the same time, Norwich know that they won’t get too many chances to cause Chelsea problems and will have to take whatever limited chances they get. Both teams will have to work extremely hard in defence and attack so as to win the game.

Mourinho has an almost full-strength squad to choose from, with Marco van Ginkel being the only long-term absentee. Eden Hazard might miss out due to an ankle injury and Mourinho will also be without the services of Fernando Torres, who is not only on the suspended list but also picked up a slight knee injury during the match against Steaua. Hughton is also missing a few players. Sebastian Bassong remains an injury doubt, as do Nathan Redmond and Javier Garrido. Elliot Bennett will be out till some time next year after having an operation done on his knee.

As mentioned before, Chelsea will go into this match as favourites and Mourinho himself will know that the pressure is on them to pick up the three points. However, the fact that Norwich have nothing to lose might just work in their advantage as they know that expectations from them are minimal. This is one of those matches that will either be extremely one-sided (i.e. Norwich will be in for a long afternoon) or a case of the underdog coming out on top.