The £3.3million international and in-form striker Sunderland will have to stop against Norwich City

The Canaries were viewed by many as the pre-season promotion favourites in the Championship but failed to win any of their opening three league fixtures.

Since then, Dean Smith’s side have recorded back-to-back wins against Huddersfield and Millwall to ease growing concerns at Carrow Road.

To find out more, we caught up with Connor Southwell from The Norwich Evening News on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.

You can listen to the full episode here

How would you assess Norwich’s start to the season?

CS: “Slow I think is probably the first word to use.

“The internal aim was to come out of the traps pretty quickly and that obviously didn’t happen with a defeat at Cardiff, draw against Wigan and defeat at Hull. That suddenly ramped up the pressure that there was on Dean Smith.

“The back-to-back wins in the last week have eased a bit of that pressure and have maybe settled everyone down.

“You look at it and seven points after five games is actually the same amount as they had under Daniel Farke two years ago and they went on to win the title with 97 points.”

What system is Smith likely to play?

CS: “I think he feels the way he wants to play is probably better suited to a back four, he’s played a 4-3-3 a lot, a 4-2-3-1, a 4-1-4-1.

“I would see Norwich probably sticking with that four at the back, probably 4-3-3 which is what he’s prefered in recent weeks.”

Who are their key players?

CS: “Marcelino Nunez is probably as close to that as Norwich City have got, he’s a midfielder they signed from Chile earlier in the summer and he’s been excellent since he came in. He’s probably a little bit guilty of trying to do too much at times but he has become a bit like their creator and chief.

“Danel Sinani has come in the last couple of games on the right and performed really well. Josh Sargent has really hit a purple patch and surprised a few people.

“Teemu Pukki, obviously everyone looks at Norwich and goes the goals are coming from Pukki, and they have done in the last five years. It’s very rare for him to have an injury but he has had a foot issue.”

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Alex Neil will be coming up against his former club – how is he viewed at Norwich now?

CS: “It’s probably one of those managerial spells that has got better with hindsight.

“The job he did at Sunderland last season, I think there were a lot of Norwich fans looking at that and saying that’s very similar to what he managed at Norwich.

“He managed to get a tune out of that Norwich squad and get them promoted. In the Premier League they probably lacked a striker because of the play-offs and they didn’t have time to recruit well enough.

“That’s the closest Norwich have come to staying in the Premier League was under Alex Neil.

“He’s really popular and I think he’s always going to be remembered fondly for that day at Wembley that Norwich had against Middlesbrough in the play-off final.”

What’s your predicted line-up?

CS: “(4-3-3) Krul; Aarons, Omobamidele, Hanley, McLean; Gibbs, Nunez, Dowell; Cantwell, Sinani; Sargent.”