Norwich City and Brentford will both endeavour to end torrid winless runs when they renew hostilities at Carrow Road for Saturday afternoon's Premier League clash.
The Canaries head into the weekend on the back of a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in the FA Cup, while Thomas Frank's side most recently lost 2-0 to Newcastle United.
Match preview
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As high as Liverpool's morale was on Wednesday night, a raft of enforced changes from their gruelling 120-minute EFL Cup final showdown with Chelsea may have led to a slight sense of hope from the travelling Norwich fans that an FA Cup upset was on the cards.
However, Jurgen Klopp's second-string XI ensured that the German would take charge of an FA Cup quarter-final for the first time in his Anfield career, as Takumi Minamino bagged a brace for himself in the first half before Lukas Rupp's thunderbolt of a consolation.
The Canaries were certainly never expected to go all the way in the FA Cup, and Dean Smith can at least now focus all his efforts on the impending battle for survival, with Norwich rock bottom of the rankings with 17 points after 26 games.
Norwich also sit five points adrift of safety and have played two more games than 17th-placed Everton, so it is certainly a pessimistic outlook for the Premier League's basement side, but 18th-placed Burnley and 19th-placed Watford face challenging fixtures with Chelsea and Arsenal respectively.
Smith's side can therefore count the visit of Brentford as a prime opportunity to put some pressure on their relegation rivals and potentially climb up to 19th, but they have lost their last four on the bounce in all competitions and are the only team in the top flight yet to hit the 10-goal mark on home soil.
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Roars rang out across the Brentford Community Stadium as Christian Eriksen returned to Premier League action less than a year after nearly losing his life at Euro 2020, but as far as the football was concerned, there was very little for the Bees to cheer.
A resurgent Newcastle United leapfrogged their lowly opponents in the table with a comfortable 2-0 success over Frank's side last Saturday - although Brentford's cause was not helped by an 11th-minute red card to Josh Dasilva - as Joelinton's header and Joe Willock's well-taken goal saw the Magpies storm to a vital three points.
After such a bright start to their inaugural Premier League campaign, Brentford's first season in the big time is now turning into a nightmare, as the Bees have slipped to 15th in the table having played more games than most of the sides around them (27) and are now just three points clear of the dotted line.
Winless since a 4-1 FA Cup success at Port Vale back in January, Brentford have suffered eight defeats from their last nine in all competitions - the only outlier being a goalless stalemate with Crystal Palace - and not since October have the Bees won or conceded fewer than two goals away from home in the Premier League.
Furthermore, Norwich ran out 2-1 winners at the Brentford Community Stadium earlier this season, with that result stretching the Canaries' unbeaten run in this fixture to six games since the Bees won by the same scoreline at Carrow Road back in December 2017.
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Team News
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Norwich attacker Przemyslaw Placheta suffered a heavy fall behind the advertising boards at Anfield and could miss out here, but captain Grant Hanley will return from suspension to displace Christoph Zimmermann.
Max Aarons and Brandon Williams should be back after missing the FA Cup defeat with knocks, and it remains to be seen if Ozan Kabak will recover from his shoulder problem in time, but Andrew Omobamidele and Adam Idah are definitely out.
Joshua Sargent is set to return to the attacking line in place of the stricken Placheta, while Angus Gunn should displace Tim Krul in goal and Kenny McLean will eye a start over Rupp - who was taken off seconds after scoring a peach of a strike against Liverpool.
As for Brentford, Dasilva will serve the first of a three-game ban following his early sending off last weekend, which ought to allow Frank Onyeka to return to the engine room or Sergi Canos to come in on the right.
Tarique Fosu and Julian Jeanvier remain absent for the long-term, and Frank may still be hesitant to throw Eriksen in from the first whistle, even though the playmaker came through 40 minutes unscathed against Newcastle.
However, Ivan Toney ought to return to the first XI after recovering from a minor issue of his own, with Yoane Wissa expected to take his place on the bench at Carrow Road.
Norwich City possible starting lineup:
Gunn; Aarons, Hanley, Gibson, Williams; McLean, Normann, Gilmour; Sargent, Pukki, Rashica
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Raya; Ajer, Jansson, Pinnock, Henry; Canos, Norgaard, Onyeka, Janelt; Toney, Mbeumo
We say: Norwich City 1-2 Brentford
Brentford's inability to keep the back door shut away from home is well-documented, but Norwich boast the worst home attacking record in the division ahead of this relegation six-pointer.
Both sides will view this encounter as a priceless opportunity to end their winless runs, but with the Bees enjoying a longer period of rest and boosted by having Toney and Eriksen raring to go, we are tipping the visitors to finally post another victory as Norwich remain rooted to the bottom.
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 37.24%. A win for Brentford had a probability of 34.65% and a draw had a probability of 28.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Norwich City win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.56%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.87%) and 2-0 (6.9%). The likeliest Brentford win was 0-1 (11.05%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.19%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 2.9% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted that Brentford would win this match.
