Norwich City head coach Dean Smith says the belief is still there in the squad that the Canaries can avoid the drop and with 11 games to go the team have to approach every match looking to get points.
That starts with a match at home to European and World Club Cup champions Chelsea on Thursday night.
“There are 33 points still to play for and we will keep playing for every one of them,” said Dean, who confirmed that only Andrew Omobamidele and Adam Idah are missing from the matchday squad for Thursday night’s game (7.30pm, kick-off).
“The squad has been through a lot of ups and downs over the last three or four years here and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy in the Premier League. What we have to do is go and show everybody and have that siege mentality that we can take every game as it comes and go and win games.
“It is a tough game because it is the European and World Champions, who are playing very well and who are very well coached and have got very good players. It is a tough game, but it is one where we need to take some points.”
Norwich City lost 7-0 to Chelsea when the team played at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. That was before Dean Smith took charge as head coach though, so he won’t be drawing on lessons from that too much.
“I haven’t even talked about that game to be honest,” he said. “I have not looked back it. It wasn’t one of the games that I needed to look at when I was analysing the team.”
Asked if games on the horizon against Leeds United and Burnley, two teams also struggling with Norwich at the wrong end of the table, took on any extra significance than the Chelsea match, Dean added: “At the moment nobody knows what is going to be enough (to survive). \
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"So, we can’t pick and choose games that we think we can win and ones that we can’t. We have got 11 games to go, and we have only got 17 points, so we know every game is important to us. Chelsea is as big as Leeds, and we have got to go out and perform and get one of those unexpected results.”