Norwich City picked up their first point of the Premier League season with a resolute defensive display at Burnley.

Sean Dyche's Clarets put plenty of balls into the Norwich area but a back three of Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson and Ozan Kabak defended them well, with Dimitris Giannoulis and Max Aarons offering good cover as wing backs.

Head coach Daniel Farke made just one change from the side that had lost to Everton last time out as Greek international Giannoulis replaced Brandon Williams.

In what was a very physical first half, Norwich stood up to Burnley’s pressure well. Defending six corners from the hosts without incident and putting in superb blocks when needed.

Aarons was first to strike towards the Burnley goal but his third minute effort was wide of the mark before Matej Vydra tested Tim Krul with a header on 15 minutes.

There were plenty of late challenges from the hosts in the opening 45 minutes with James Tarkowski, Chris Wood and Josh Brownhill all going into the book for poor challenges and Chris Lowton seeing yellow for dissent.

However, after Pierre-Lees Melou played a superb through ball for Teemu Pukki, that the Finnish striker was not able to get on the end of, the hosts started to build up a head of steam towards half time.

Grant Hanley had to block a close-range header from Jay Rodriguez, who had replaced the injured Vydra, and then Giannoulis bravely got in the way of a fierce effort from Lowton.

At the other end, Lees-Melou tested Nick Pope with an effort from just outside the box, but in truth neither keeper was too stretched in the first half.

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Burnley had the first chance of the second half as McNeil hit an effort from distance forcing a good save from Krul, but moments later Ozan Kabak went on mazy run and took the ball all the way from his own box to the opposition’s penalty area before being brought down by Rodriguez.

That earned the Burnley striker a booking but, fortunately for the hosts, Normann’s free kick was well saved by Pope who dived to his right to stop the Norwegian’s effort.

That lifted Norwich and moments later Lees-Melou found Sargent who then played in Pukki who was well tackled by Tarkowski just as he went to shoot.

Then Normann, who won the club’s player-of-the-month award for September, almost opened the scoring just after the hour as he drove into the opposition’s box and spun before firing a shot that took Pope by surprise and crashed off the crossbar.

On 65 minutes Burnley had a great chance to take the lead when Dwight McNeil tried to control a good cross to the back post from substitute Jóhann Berg Gudmundsson when he should have hit the effort first time.

However, just as in the first half, Burnley then began to build up some pressure as the game approached the final 15 minutes.

That forced Daniel Farke into two changes with 10 minutes to go as Milot Rashica and Lukas Rupp replaced Pukki and Lees-Melou. Moments later Aarons broke down the right and found Sargent who fired just wide but, in what was end to end finish, Rodriguez then glanced a Gudmundsson cross off target before Brownhill sent a ball to the back post that Lowton headed over.

Norwich will check on the fitness of on loan midfielder Billy Gilmour, who has picked up a problem with his foot whilst training this week.

Centre-back Christoph Zimmermann (ankle) is expected to return following the international break, but will not be ready for this match.

Midfielder Todd Cantwell remains unavailable  for the trip north due to personal reasons.

Poland winger Przemyslaw Placheta is stepping up his recovery from a coronavirus infection in pre-season, and has been able to start taking part in some training sessions this week at Colney.

Full-back Sam Byram has also been able to join in some sessions again as he starts his return and rehabilitation from the long-term hamstring issue that has plagued his recent time at the club.

After a 19-year playing career, including a spell at Norwich City, Hughes started his coaching career at Bolton Wanderers in July 2014 as assistant under 21s and first team coach. In March 2016 he moved on to Crystal Palace as a first team coach but four months later he moved to Huddersfield Town as a first team coach under Stuart Webber.

Hughes stayed at Huddersfield for nearly three years before becoming the Lead U23s coach at Sheffield United for just under a year.

Hughes then went on to enjoy a brief spell at Sheffield Wednesday last year before becoming a coach for Norwich City earlier in the summer this year.

Lee Dunn got his first job in football as a first team performance analyst at Torquay United before moving on to Bristol Rovers in a similar role in August 2009. Became head of performance analysis back at Torquay in July 2011 before a short spell as a first team performance analyst with Everton.

He went on to join Norwich City as a first team performance analyst in July 2013 before becoming the head of performance analysis in July 2015. Three years his later his role was changed to also include recruitment analysis.

Dunn has been the man at the heart of producing the dossiers on new City signings, the like of which convinced Ben Gibson to sign for the Canaries in the summer of 2020.

“I met Stuart (Webber), the manager and the head analyst (Dunn) at the same time,” said Gibson. “I joked afterwards, but it was no exaggeration, the analyst knew more about me than me. They put together a presentation and they left no stone unturned.”

Norwich have announced former manager Neil Adams will step up into the role of assistant sporting director to Stuart Webber.

Former Everton and Oldham midfielder Adams, who also played for the Canaries, had most recently been overseeing the club’s footballers who were on loan away from Carrow Road.

Adams, who guided the club’s academy team to FA Youth Cup success in 2013, had initially taken over as caretaker manager from Chris Hughton in April 2014, but was unable to keep Norwich in the Premier League.

After being appointed full-time following relegation to the Championship, Adams eventually resigned in January 2015 with the team seventh in the table, and later returned to the club on the backroom staff.

Norwich also confirmed that as part of the changes Lee Dunn will step up into the position of head of recruitment, with former midfielder Andrew Hughes appointed as the club’s new loan player manager and John Iga joining as head of data and innovation.

Adams is set to help Webber “oversee and manage all football operations and strategy across the club”.

Webber said on www.canaries.co.uk: “I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked very closely with Neil during my time with the club. He brings a wealth of experience and some great attributes to this new role.

“Neil will take on some of my responsibilities, allowing me to drive forward and progress other areas of the club.”

Webber added: “It’s an exciting time to be part of Norwich City, of which every player and staff member is extremely grateful for.”

Norwich, promoted as Championship winners last season, currently sit bottom of the Premier League table with no points after losing all six of their Premier League games so far.

Ben Foster has praised the experience of Watford's new arrivals after their involvement in a positive win away at Norwich City yesterday.

The Hornets put three goals past the side that pipped them to the Championship title last season, to seal an important first away win of the campaign.

The summer transfer window saw a high turnover of players with some big names leaving the club, but the goalkeeper feels the new arrivals have enough about them to adapt quickly to the new challenge.

“This is a new team, and there's been a big turnover in the summer, but you can't put a price on know-how and experience," the goalkeeper said.

“Sometimes you have to part company with players who have been at the club a long time to move on to fresh pastures, but the players who have come in know their way around the block – people like Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko, Josh King – and they are so important."

At 38 Foster has plenty of experience himself.

He believes that helped him contribute to a much improved team performance, that head coach Xisco Munoz later described as "mature".

“I have to say the team selection was really good: I would like to know the average age of that side because there was so much experience from back to front," he said.

“I'm 38, so I was definitely propping up the average age, but when you have lost three in a row and you are going away from home to a place like Norwich, where you know they are going to be dogged and not give you a second's breath, you need wise heads to shut the game down."

Despite his age, Foster still feels like he can perform at the highest level and said the match day feeling helps him exceed his own abilities.

“I have to say I'm still feeling good," he added.

"When that whistle goes at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, I still get a real rush of adrenaline and I can do things during a game that I can't do in training.”

Head coach Daniel Farke admitted that his side were not clinical enough in their defending to earn the right to take points from the match at home to Watford.

The Canaries lost the game 3-1, with Emmanuel Dennis and Ismalia Sarr (2) scoring for Watford. The home side, after conceding early on, had done well to battle back to level through a Teemu Pukki goal, superbly set up by debutant Mathias Normann.

However, it was the defensive errors that frustrated Farke when analysing the team’s performance.

“Football is quite often a game where the team who is there with less mistakes, wins,” he said. “To be honest in our defending behaviour we were there with too many mistakes today to earn the right to win the points. I think this was key to losing this game and for that it is also then a deserved result for the win for Watford.”

Alongside Mathias Normann, Ozan Kabak was also was making his debut. Farke said that both players showed promising signs as to why the club signed them, but added that in the goals the team conceded they will have wished they could have done better.

“Mathias and Ozan had several good situations but there were also a few situations where they probably would have wished that they had done better," said Farke.

“It was not easy for them. I think overall you have to say that it was a good and proper debut and they showed why we wanted to sign them, but crucial today were the goals that we have conceded because it was a tight game.

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“It was 50/50 per cent possession and 12 shots on both sides but our defending behaviour was not clinical enough. You have to say that there was not one situation where we were on an underload.

“So, it is not a tactical problem. The first goal that we conceded we were three against three on the wings and we still allowed the cross to come in.

“Then, in the box, we were three against one and, with all due respect, (Emmanuel) Dennis is not a striker that is known for scoring too many goals with his head and he was in-between my two centre backs and he scored.

“I would, of course, hoped that we would have dealt with this situation a bit better. It is also the same with the second goal. Once the ball came in, we had an overload in the centre. We were two against one striker, and this striker was still able to score out of this cutback. We should have dealt with the situation much better.

“Today we have to be self-critical and say that we produced too many defensive mistakes, we were not clinical enough in our defending in our own box to earn the right to win these points.”

Head coach Daniel Farke has issued a rallying cry for supporters to create the best atmosphere ever at Carrow Road for Saturday’s game against Watford.

Boosted by the return of Josh Sargent and Dimitris Giannoulis to the matchday squad, Norwich City go into the match searching for the first win of the Premier League season.

That run, despite having faced four teams from the top eight of last season’s Premier League, including champions Manchester City and FA Cup winners Leicester, has led to some fans criticising the team and his selection.

However, Farke says at 2pm when the team is announced tomorrow, everyone has a duty to back the players that have been picked as it will give the team the best chance of getting a result.

“If I play Max Aarons tomorrow and some people think I should play Bali Mumba that is not a problem, but once Max Aarons’ name is on the teamsheet, I want everyone to back him and to cheer him up and sing his name,” said Farke.

“This has to be the way when our starting line-up is announced. It was like this against Liverpool, everyone was singing our song On The Ball City and we need this even more tomorrow.

“It was easy to do this against Liverpool when it was the first game, there was the spotlight and the TV cameras. We need this even more against Watford and when the teamsheet is announced tomorrow, everyone has to be spot on. The people in the ticket office and our announcer. He has to be like in the boxing fights, and to make sure everyone is buzzing and when he says the names our stadium escalates.

“This is what I want to have. It will still not be a guarantee that we win this game, but we must create an atmosphere where were support and back the lads from the first to the last second.”

Some section of the media where also labelling the match a must-win game. However, Farke said it was must that his players put in a good performance but that he could not label the match a must win, this early on in the season.

“There is no replacement for points and there is no replacement for wins and, of course, to get off the mark would be unbelievably important,” he said.

“We know this but if it doesn’t work, it is not like we will raise the white flag and say come on let’s play straight away back on Championship level.

“We have played four of the best sides in this country and we were competitive. Right now, we are playing a promoted side and a side that had before spent five years on Premier League level. They were able to keep the whole group together. They were able to quality like (Joshua) King, like (Moussa) Sissoko and some other really good players.

“So it is a difficult game and it is must deliver performance. We must deliver a top-class performance to give ourselves a chance and if we do this then we can also win points in this game. We highly motivated and greedy to do this but it doesn’t help if you sit there and pray that you ‘must win this game’ it is not time for words, it is time for action.”