Premier League beckons for dominant Norwich city as they swat away the challengers.

The eagerly anticipated battle of the top two played out on Wednesday night, in a fixture where Emi Buendia shone for Norwich, as they saw off second placed Brentford to stretch their lead at the top of the Championship table. Norwich were able to restrict Brentford to very little, and looked the most likely to score throughout the game. It was a result which underlined Norwich’s title credentials, and one which sent out a real statement about what it is going to take to stop the Canaries from clinching the Championship title for the second time in three years, as they moved 10 points clear of Brentford and 13 clear of third place.

 

Conversely it represented the fourth league defeat in Brentfords last 6 outings, their worst run of form this season, and a pattern of results they will be desperate to change as we enter the run in. 

 

The build-up to this mouth-watering prospect focussed on the comparison between the two sides respective titans up front, with Teemu Pukki and Ivan Toney notching 43 goals between them this season, (18 and 25 respectively) with the latter also registering an impressive 9 assists so far this campaign.

 

Pukki was played in on goal in typical Norwich fashion after just 90 seconds, in a scenario from which we have seen him bury it on countless occasions over the past few years. His clever run was found unsurprisingly accurately by Emi Buendia however this time he lifted the ball over the bar as the chance evaded him.

 

Norwich dominated the early encounters, but a quick break in the 9th minute resulted in a venomous Sergei Canos strike stinging the hands of Tim Krul at the other end.

 

Just moments later Canos fluffed his lines from a situation which demanded a goal, and transpired to be Brentford’s best opportunity of the match.  Mbuemo controlled the ball well before beating his man on the right-hand side and delivering a low ball across goal which was cut out my Krul, it fell to Canos who could not sort his feet out in time to guide the ball into the gaping net.

 

The opening goal came in the 25th minute when Emi Buendia cut inside and guided the ball into the far corner from just outside the box. It stemmed from Brentford losing possession in the middle of the park, when Sergei Canos attempted a speculative switch of play, ignoring the supporting options he had on his left. Norwich moved the ball forward quickly and Buendia finished off the move.

 

Pukki was clean through on goal again right at the end of the half. Buendia found him with a glorious long through ball from well within his own half which found Pukkis run as he peeled away from Jensen. Yet again Pukki opted to lift the ball over Brentford keeper Raya, who stayed on his feet and blocked the shot.

 

The first chance of the second half also fell to Pukki, who cut inside on his right foot unchallenged and struck a low shot which Raya was just able to tip behind for a corner.

 

Brentford struggled to carve out any significant chances, and the next one fell again to Norwich, when Ben Gibsons header from a Buendia freekick lacked the power to beat Raya.

 

 

Although they mustered a couple of half chances in injury time, including an optimistic penalty appeal, in the end it was a game in which the belief seemed to drain out of Brentford as the game wore on. This was epitomised by a couple of hopeful long balls towards Ivan Toney towards the end of the game, which is so unlike the exciting Brentford side we have been used to seeing this season. 

 

 

 

Man of the match – Emi Buendia.

The architect of the majority of Norwich’s best chances tonight, including two excellent through balls for Teemu Pukki, as well as scoring the winning goal in the first half.