Norwich City.

All you need to know about Norwich City

Friday 10 January 2020 07:00

Manchester United's first home Premier League match of 2020 will be against a Norwich City side embroiled in a fierce scrap for survival.

Daniel Farke's side, who were promoted to the top flight as champions last season, have produced several fine displays throughout the campaign, albeit without the points to show for their endeavours.

The Canaries will make the long journey from East Anglia to Manchester in the hope of picking up consecutive away victories at Old Trafford for the first time in over 30 years.

As Saturday's kick-off approaches, here’s what you need to know about our visitors…

TEAM NEWS

Top scorer Teemu Pukki could miss Saturday's game with a hamstring strain. The Finnish striker has scored nine goals for the Canaries this season, with his last strike coming in Norwich's 1-1 draw with Leicester City. The 29-year old was out of the squad for last weekend's FA Cup third-round tie against Preston North End.

Other potential doubts include Swiss striker Josip Drmic with a thigh injury, along with defender Ben Godfrey, who hasn't featured since mid-December after sustaining a long-term knee injury. 

Highlights: Norwich 1 United 3 Video

Highlights: Norwich 1 United 3

See how the Reds beat the Canaries at Carrow Road, with tasty goals from Rashford and Martial...

FORM GUIDE

After a positive start to life back in the Premier League, including a 3-2 success against Manchester City, injuries and bad luck have meant that Norwich are in danger of heading straight back to the Championship at the end of the season.

Ahead of this weekend's round of fixtures, the Canaries lie at the foot of the Premier League table, seven points from safety, and are without a win since beating Everton in November - their only away victory in the league this term. Norwich have lost 16 of their last 20 away games in the top flight, since winning 2-1 at Old Trafford in December 2015.

Since their victory on Merseyside, our visitors have produced spirited displays, but don't have the results to show for their efforts. Draws against Arsenal, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur have been the highlights, but in all three of these matches our visitors have squandered leads. Daniel Farke's side have dropped 14 points from winning positions this season (all since the start of December), only West Ham have dropped more.

OUR RECORD AGAINST NORWICH

Despite being defeated in our last home meeting in 2015/16, our recent Old Trafford record against the Canaries is pretty strong. United have won eight of our last 10 home league games against the visitors.

The Reds' overall record against Norwich makes for good reading too – in 68 meetings with the East Anglian side, we’ve won 38 and lost 17, drawing the other 13. Meanwhile in the Premier League era, we have won six of our eight fixtures at home, the last of which came in April 2014. Braces from Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata saw us run out 4-0 victors, when Ryan Giggs was in temporary charge of the team.

With nine goals to his name, Teemu Pukki is Norwich's top scorer this season.

THE MANAGER

In what is his first season in the English top flight, Daniel Farke is one of four Germans to manage a Premier League side, after Felix Magath (Fulham), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) and Jan Siewert (Huddersfield Town). Farke arrived at Carrow Road in the summer of 2017 from Borussia Dortmund II and, although his first campaign in the Championship saw our visitors finish 14th, the following campaign saw them go up as champions, playing free-flowing, attacking football along the way.

The 43-year old, who was a striker in his playing days, cut his managerial teeth at SV Lippstadt 08, before joining Dortmund's reserves in 2015, where he spent two years at Westfalenstadion.

Now in his third season at Carrow Road, Daniel Farke led the Canaries to the Championship title and promotion in 2019.

ONES TO WATCH

Norwich's Argentinian midfielder Emiliano Buendía has been highly influential in their scrap to avoid the drop. The 23-year old has created 19 goalscoring opportunities for team-mate Teemu Pukki in the Premier League this season; the most any player has created for another in the competition so far this term.

One player who has risen to prominence for the Canaries is Todd Cantwell. With six goals to his name, the youngster is currently enjoying his best scoring season of his young career so far and he found the net in their last Premier League outing, a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on New Year's Day.

Although he hasn't been on the scoresheet since 14 December, Finnish forward Pukki remains Norwich's top marksman with nine goals, including what proved to be the winner in their 3-2 win against Man City in September. 

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