Norwich City

Manager speaks ahead of Chelsea trip

NEIL Adams says he and his Norwich City players know that now is the time for results as they prepare to face Chelsea in their penultimate Premier League game of the season on Sunday.

The Canaries slipped into the bottom three after last weekend’s defeat at Manchester United, meaning the need for a positive outcome from their trip to Stamford Bridge, as well as another from their final match of the campaign against Arsenal, is clear.

“The effort is there, the commitment is there, but it’s points we need,” Adams told Norwich City TV ahead of his pre-match press conference on Friday.

“We’ve always known what we’re up against, but in terms of application it’s exactly what you need from a team in this situation. We just have to hope that translates into something at Stamford Bridge.

“We need to get points from our last two games. We will find out the other results on Saturday but we’ll need to get something from our game to be in with a chance when going into the Arsenal one.”

The positive news in the lead up to the Sunday’s televised game is that there are no fresh injury concerns, although late decisions will be made on whether to include Joseph Yobo and Anthony Pilkington.

“Joseph’s trained with us for most of the week, but he’s just got one or two concerns with his calf. We hope he’s going to be ok, we’ll have a look on Friday and Saturday but there’s a small doubt over him,” he added.

“Anthony is still with the physios at the moment. He hasn’t done any sessions with us, so it will be tough for him to travel.”

Adams is expecting a forward-thinking Chelsea set-up as they try to keep alive their hopes of winning the Premier League crown, despite recent attention surrounding their tactics against Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.

“How Chelsea go about their business on Sunday is up to Jose Mourinho,” he commented.

“They’re still in the title race, and they’re at home so we expect them to attack so we have to prepare for them to play an attacking team and an attacking philosophy.

“The criticism doesn’t come from successful managers. I know he’s had a bit of a pop at one or two when they’ve done similar things to him, but it’s about results, as we all know.

“If you ‘park a bus’ but it gets you a result then two or three weeks down the line everyone has forgotten about it and the points are on the table.”