Norwich City will be hoping to further extend their lead at the top of the Championship on Saturday when they host struggling Rotherham United.
The Canaries' win over Coventry City on Wednesday, combined with Brentford's defeat to Queens Park Rangers, means they now have a four-point advantage over the Bees in second place.
Match preview
© Reuters
Teemu Pukki and Emiliano Buendia grabbed the goals, and assisted each other, in a comfortable 2-0 victory for Norwich at St. Andrew's.
The victory was a second win in five days for Daniel Farke's side, who are firmly back on track having been on a three-game winless run a week ago.
Farke has claimed that he is not interested in how the teams around Norwich perform and that his side must simply concentrate on securing three points themselves.
Norwich could well now be set for a run of wins as after hosting Rotherham they face the bottom two – Birmingham City and Wycombe Wanderers.
Only Watford (35) have picked up more points at home in the Championship this season than Norwich (32), while the Canaries have only lost once at Carrow Road, which came at the start of October against Derby County.
© Reuters
Rotherham proved a good match for sixth-placed Bournemouth on Wednesday, and Paul Warne admitted that his team were disappointed to come away with nothing in a 1-0 defeat.
It was a second successive defeat for the Millers, who had previously lost just one of their first six league games of 2021.
The strugglers go into the weekend one point and one place above the relegation zone, with at least one game in hand over all of the teams around them.
Having won just one of their first 10 Championship away games this season, Rotherham are now on a run of three consecutive victories on the road. However, the Millers have won just one of their last 18 fixtures against Norwich and have not triumphed at Carrow Road since 1966.
Jordan Hugill's 95th-minute penalty secured a 2-1 win for the Canaries in the reverse fixture in October.
Norwich City Championship form: WDDLWW
Norwich City form (all competitions): LDDLWW
Rotherham United Championship form: WLWWLL
Team News
© Reuters
Farke has named the same starting XI for Norwich's two successive wins so there is a good chance that the side will remain unchanged on Saturday.
Hugill could be back in the matchday squad, having trained this week following a month on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
Rotherham have also been unchanged in their last two games, but Warne may be tempted to switch some things around after defeat to Bournemouth.
Freddie Ladapo could come into the team to start upfront, while Ryan Giles is contention to take the left wing-back spot.
Norwich City possible starting lineup:
Krul; Aarons, Hanley, Gibson, Giannoulis; Skipp, McLean; Buendia, Vrancic, Cantwell; Pukki
Rotherham United possible starting lineup:
Johansson; Ihiekwe, Wood, Robertson; Harding, Wing, Barlaser, Wiles, Giles; Crooks, Ladapo
We say: Norwich City 2-0 Rotherham United
While Rotherham have improved over the course of the season, Norwich seem to be gathering momentum again and have to be placed as favourites for this game. Pukki and Buendia are both on form, and the Canaries will be hard to stop at Carrow Road.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Norwich City win with a probability of 56.27%. A draw had a probability of 23.3% and a win for Rotherham United had a probability of 20.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Norwich City win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.5%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.16%) and 2-1 (9.81%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.09%), while for a Rotherham United win it was 0-1 (6.28%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 11.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Norwich City in this match.
