Manager Chris Hughton has called for a sense of perspective as his struggling Norwich side prepare to take on Arsenal at Carrow Road tomorrow.

The Canaries have yet to record a Barclays Premier League win under their new boss, and are second bottom with a goal difference of minus 12.

Hughton, though, feels those statistics do not tell the whole story.

Norwich recovered from a 5-0 trashing at Fulham on the opening day to draw three in a row, including an impressive result at Tottenham, and played well at Newcastle before losing 1-0. However, successive heavy defeats by Liverpool at home and Chelsea away ahead of the international break undid most of that good work.

“I always tend to try to be as positive as I can. There are fine dividing lines, and from the three games we drew, if we had won just one of those, we would have that under our belt and then there is a different perspective,” said Hughton.

“I am aware of the performance level we are able to achieve, but you need to get the points on the board.

“Where we have been fortunate is there are a group of teams around us who have not been able to get two or three wins to take them away from the pack.

“The mood in the squad is good, certainly not of the team which is on the back of a couple of heavy defeats, which is encouraging.

“We knew that it was going to be a tough season, irrespective of how we started.

“We are only seven games in, and we feel there are a lot more positives to look forward to than negatives.

“We have to get back to where we were two games ago.

“It is about going on a run to give us a comfort zone.”

While Hughton accepts it is going to be a tough ask to get a positive result tomorrow against an Arsenal team looking to cement their status as genuine title challengers, he expects Norwich to step up their own performance.

He said: “These are the type of the games you should look forward to and I know I have a group of players who will feel like that.

“We have to make sure we stay in the game and we are also a threat apart from nullifying their threat.

“We certainly know the qualities they have, but we have to have our game plan on the day and make it as difficult as we can.”

Norwich had several players away on international duty over the past fortnight, including Russell Martin who was an unused substitute in both of Scotland’s disappointing World Cup qualifying defeats.

The defender maintains despite a testing first two months of the new domestic season, the mood in the Norwich dressing room remains upbeat.

“We know we have performed well enough to get that win, but we haven’t got it,” he said.

“It is going to be six or seven teams battling it out all season to stay up and we know that and as long as we are at the top of that mini-league we will be okay.

“The sooner the win comes for everyone around the club, the better – we might stop people saying ‘it is going to be a long old season for Norwich’.

“For us, we know we have deserved to have it. It will come, there is no anxiety about it.”

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