1. Down with the Wednesday
Regular Norwich visitors to Bramall Lane should be well used to the waves of negativity from a Blades’ fan base who seem to extract added delight from the Canaries’ misfortune.
Maybe this modern rivalry goes back to the Chris Wilder coach driver rant and that ‘Battle of Bramall Lane’ in the Daniel Farke era, as the sparks flew from duelling it out with a serial promotion rival in the Championship.
But City’s travelling support have never before had to suffer chants they are hurtling in the opposite direction, alongside United’s bitter city rivals.
Liam Manning’s vintage came up short recently at the Owls. This in many respects should be tougher to take. Like Watford, Philippe Clement’s Norwich were the dominant actor for the majority of the opening 45 minutes. There was a poise and a control to their work in possession that lacked a cutting edge.
There was also more nervy defensive moments from Vladan Kovacevic, but against a home team who made eight changes from their thumping weekend win over Stoke, with illness reportedly rife in the camp, City must have sensed an opportunity.
But when Josh Sargent departed with suspected concussion, and Kenny McLean failed to re-appear for the second half with a hip complaint, there was a crushing inevitability about the outcome. The wily Danny Ings ran off the back of Ruairi McConville to slot Tahith Chong’s cross, who had twisted Tony Springett inside and out.
But Norwich dug in and dug themselves out of a hole. This was not the same script that unfolded at Watford.
Djibril Soumare turned Jovon Makama’s low cross into his own net and Amankwah Forson had a glorious chance in stoppage time to seal the win, and ram those relegation taunts down the throats of the home fans. The league table may still come with a health warning but Norwich are fighting.
2. The curse that keeps on giving
No Mathias Kvistgaarden in the Norwich squad at Bramall Lane with another knee related issue now requiring further assessment.
Clement confirmed in his post-match media there was pain in the same knee previously injured at Coventry in September. But too early to map out the length of any lay-off.
Then star striker Sargent exits in the first half after a heavy fall in the act of clearing his lines inside his own penalty area. Clearly dazed, he needed support staff to help lead him away, and straight down the tunnel.
A full fitness bulletin will arrive in due course over these coming days, but given the concussion protocols Jack Stacey had to observe earlier this season after he was knocked out then it would appear Clement will be without his two prime attacking options for the foreseeable.
Kvistgaarden missed six Championship games earlier this season after an awkward landing jarred his knee in a 1-1 draw at high-flying Coventry that brought the 23-year-old his first league goal in English football. What cruel luck then. What cruel luck now.
Especially galling as the latest blows came amid a rare upbeat pre-match fitness bulletin delivered by the Belgian that brought returns for Shane Duffy and Ben Chrisene and the prospect of Liam Gibbs and Jose Cordoba being available for Southampton’s upcoming visit.
Clement’s bid to harness any upward mobility is being severely tested in the same manner Manning encountered – keeping key players fit and available.
Injuries are part and parcel of any football season – while what happened to Stacey and now Sargent is just desperate bad luck – but hard to escape the sense the volume of injuries is entwinned with endless fitness issues, which have been both publicly acknowledged by Ben Knapper and now subject to external audits to try and solve.
The quicker the better, but you fear any remedy is next season away.
3. Big and bold
Watching the towering Clement at the front of his technical area, barely a yard from the playing surface at Bramall Lane, was an education in itself.
Clement evokes memories of Paul Lambert in the energetic mannerisms, and the sense from afar he is kicking every ball with his players.
Substitute Forson was given both barrels when he took an eternity to get himself on the park for the stricken Sargent. You felt the icy blast as Forson bent down in front of Clement to tie his shoe laces, and attach his shin pads, to further delay his arrival at the end of a fraught first half.
When Wilder appeared to be appealing to the fourth official for a City yellow card, Clement had his right of reply within ear shot.
Late on, there was paternal arm around the shoulder for Matej Jurasek, as the attacking reinforcements kept coming in that second half.
Replacements for Sargent and McLean may have been unplanned but Anis Ben Slimane, Errol Mundle-Smith and finally the Czechia international were all introduced by Clement as the City boss looked to try and claim three points. It was bold, it was proactive and it cuts to the heart of how he wants Norwich to punch their way out of Championship relegation trouble.
Those points gaps to the clubs directly above them may fluctuate with alarmingly frequency every match cycle, but Clement is chasing the process, not results. He has spoken liberally about imploring his players to make the right decisions and stick to the plan. But the plan is set from the head coach.
There is an ambition to how Norwich have attacked survival since his recent arrival that may not have paid off at Watford, or got the job done at Carrow Road against Oxford, but it is refreshing and the hope is over the long run for home beyond a busy festive spell it pays off.
The final minutes at Bramall Lane swung wildly from one end to the other. There was no grim defensive rearguard seen too often this season of struggle. Whatever happens from here it will be front foot, forward.
4. Wright audition
A big night for Jacob Wright deployed in that nominal number 10 position behind Sargent from the start. ‘Nominal’ because the 20-year-old appeared to have the licence to both get himself into advanced positions but also drop deeper into central midfield to show for his centre backs, and bring his full backs into play.
Four minutes on the clock and he showed for a Makama cutback to whip a strike just past Michael Cooper’s far post. There was the quality set piece delivery you would expect from a youngster schooled under Pep Guardiola; one gorgeous inswinging corner met by McLean who had drifted to the near post but headed over.
But it was his work out of possession which was perhaps more eye catching in the context of Clement’s recent comments about his ability to wrap the defensive side around the technical proficiency.
He pressed alongside Sargent with an urgency in a forward two, and his persistence in the 18th minute retrieved a ball from the byline that ended with Sargent’s bicycle kick headed off his line by Danny Ings.
He ticked every box in that opening 45. But when McLean failed to re-amerge after the interval he was shunted back in alongside Pelle Mattsson in a central two, with Emi Marcondes introduced. But there was much to like in the experiment.
Clement tried Wright in that more advanced role in a second half cameo at home to Oxford. But a start in the less forgiving surroundings of Bramall Lane marked a tougher test. One he passed. If there is a vacancy in the middle of Clement’s attacking midfield, then Wright appears to be in the equation.