Norwich vs Chelsea. Premier League Matchday 19 Preview

Leaving out of account their last defeat at the hands of West Bromwich, Norwich appear to be in one of its best periods at the present time. The key ingredient of their successes is the Canaries’ impressive home form. They steadily rose the table taking the points from the most of the fixtures played at Carrow Road. What is more important Chris Hughton’s side plays well both against the bottom-dwellers and the resilient upper mid-table teams. For example Everton and Swansea have earned only one point out of possible six in two games against Norwich.

Chelsea have returned from their disappointing World Club Cup trip into the Premier League action with a 8-0 demolition of Aston Villa. Rafa Benitez’s side demonstrated bags of energy to produce a marvelous display which allowed them to close to within 11 points to the Premier league leaders with a one game in the hand. Should the Blues keep up the pace, they may soon catch the Manchester clubs.

Norwich forward Grant Holt has returned to light training following his hamstring injury and could be in the squad for the game against Chelsea. Steven Whittaker will be out of the clash after suffering the hip injury setback in Norwich’s 1-2 defeat at the hands of West Bromwich Albion. Andy Surman, Ryan Bennett (both knee injury) and John Ruddy (hip) are also on the sidelines with a long-term injuries. Chelsea definitely will need to find a way of neutralizing the threat of Robert Snodgrass who has scored 3 and set up two goals in his last five first-team starts.

Chelsea’s skipper John Terry will miss the game against Norwich suffering the setback of his knee injury during the training session. Ryan Bertrand is also a major doubt after he was substituted in the Capital One Cup clash with Leeds and was left off the Sunday’s line-up against Aston Villa.

Probable line-ups:

Norwich: Bunn; Garrido, Turner, Bassong, Martin; Johnson, Tettey, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Snodgrass; Holt

Chelsea: Cech, Cole, Cahill, Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Ramires, David Luiz, Hazard, Mata, Oscar; Torres

Footballtop.com prediction: Norwich 2-3 Chelsea