{"id":553839,"date":"2020-06-19T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=553839"},"modified":"2020-06-19T07:12:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T11:12:36","slug":"norwich-city-hope-to-restart-survival-fight-against-southampton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/06\/19\/norwich-city-hope-to-restart-survival-fight-against-southampton\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwich City Hope to Restart Survival Fight Against Southampton"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Premier League<\/a> is back, and so is the often action-packed fight for survival and the chance for a team to complete the great escape.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norwich City Looking to Restart Survival Fight Against Southampton<\/h2>\n

Premier League Preview: Norwich v Southampton<\/span><\/h3>\n

Norwich City<\/a>, in particular, will be a team to keep an eye on as they look to overhaul the 6 point gap between themselves and safety.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Canaries host Southampton<\/a> on Friday in a much-anticipated return to action.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Saints travel to Norwich looking to avoid a return to their dismal form before lockdown which saw them lose four out of their last five games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Previous Meetings<\/h3>\n

Whilst a game between Norwich and Southampton may not be remembered as one for the ages, it has still provided entertainment over the years. Just a few months ago, in their first meeting since 2017, the two played out a back and forth game in which Southampton came out as 2-1 winners to further solidify their survival chances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, months later, the two meet again with Southampton sitting comfortably in 14th. This time around, the game is simply a must-win for Norwich; they cannot afford any more slips and must take advantage of winnable games such as the one this Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Canaries looked sharp, too, in their recent friendly victory over Tottenham Hotspurs<\/a>; a game that should have given them a timely confidence boost ahead of the Southampton game. A win for Norwich would keep their slowly fading light of hope alive at the bottom of the table. Meanwhile, a win for Southampton could take them above Newcastle<\/a> and up to 13th.<\/span><\/p>\n

Team News<\/span><\/h3>\n

Norwich<\/h4>\n

Norwich would have welcomed the break a few months ago; they were struggling for form; struggling with injuries and struggling to survive. Fast forward to post lockdown, however, and Daniel Farke will have Timm Klose <\/a>and Ben Godfrey<\/a> back at his disposal. Farke will undoubtedly be pleased to see the return of the two key defenders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teemu Pukki,<\/a> too, has been given time to regain his form and match fitness after sustaining a toe injury before the enforced break. <\/span><\/p>\n

It has also been confirmed, however, that Christoph Zimmermann<\/a>, Grant Hanley<\/a> and Sam Byram<\/a> will be out for the remainder of the season: three injuries that could have serious consequences in the Canaries\u2019 fight for survival.<\/span><\/p>\n

Southampton<\/h4>\n

As for Southampton, Nathan Redmond’s<\/a> return to fitness after a muscle injury means that the Saints go into the game with a fully fit squad. Ralph Hasenh\u00fcttl\u00a0will certainly be keen to celebrate his recent contract extension with a win on Southampton’s return to action.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction<\/span><\/h3>\n

The game is an important one for both sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norwich need the points more than most as they look to complete the great escape. Meanwhile, Southampton will be desperate to return with a bang to further cement their place in the division.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game looks set to be an action-packed and potential season-defining one for both sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norwich City 1-2 Southampton\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/p>\n

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The Premier League is back, and so is the often action-packed fight for survival and the chance for a team to complete the great escape. Norwich City Looking to Restart Survival Fight Against Southampton Premier League Preview: Norwich v Southampton Norwich City, in particular, will be a team to keep an eye on as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3402,"featured_media":554102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1370,3,20,1831],"tags":[4063,935,237,235,3247,96,136],"class_list":["post-553839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-norwich-city","category-premier-league","category-southampton","category-starting-line-up","tag-2019-20-premier-league","tag-nathan-redmond","tag-norwich-city","tag-southampton","tag-teemu-pukki","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}