Norwich City gun to end Arsenal home hoodoo

The Canaries bagged a Boxing Day 1-0 First Division victory over the Gunners at Carrow Road in December 1984 courtesy of first-half John Deehan effort – but in the one League Cup and 10 league visits since, City have failed to come out on top.

Indeed, Norwich’s winless home record against the north London side is worse than any of the other 90 professional clubs in the country.There have been plenty of draws however: seven in total – and a point would probably be welcome from the Gunners’ televised lunchtime visit to Norfolk on Saturday week.

Only both Manchester clubs and Wolverhampton Wanderers can boast better overall records against the Canaries than Arsenal, who came away with a pair of 4-1 victories against Norwich in the pair’s last Premier League encounters seven seasons ago.

Having weathered a horrendous start to the season by his standards, Arsene Wenger’s Gunners have six wins from seven top-flight matches – but the threat of a tough afternoon should not hold much fear for Paul Lambert’s men.The Canaries covered more than a million metres in their opening 10 games – their total of 1,255,661 topped only by arguably the other surprise package of this season’s Premier League, Newcastle United.Meanwhile, City’s 3-1 win over Swansea has set the bar for distance covered in a single game in 2011-12, with the two teams covering 144,981m and 142,522m respectively – the two highest totals of anyone this term.

City midfielder Bradley Johnson continues to cover more metres per minute than any player in the top flight – a startling 131.62m every 60 seconds – and Norwich fans will hope he recovers from the concussion that forced him off in the defeat at Aston Villa to feature against Arsenal.