As Norwich trudged into the tunnel at half-time against Chelsea, Daniel Farke’s face said it all.

The Canaries were 3-0 down at the break and ended up on the receiving end of a 7-0 thrashing at Stamford Bridge last Saturday.

It has not been an enjoyable return to the Premier League for the East Anglian side, who are winless after nine games back in the top flight following a season in the Championship. 

As the division’s bottom team get set to host Leeds today, we take a look at their chances of survival and consider whether the top flight could see a new record-low points total come May.

Farke far from happy

Unsurprisingly, Farke was downbeat following that demolition at the hands of Thomas Tuchel's European champions. 

The German boss said: "In all topics, we gave possession away so unnecessarily, not aware enough in defending.

"We didn’t move quick enough in behind, we didn’t move quick enough to pressure the ball in midfield.

"We’ve lost 7-0 and 7-0 is always a bit embarrassing."

There are certainly plenty of problems for the 44-year-old to address in the weeks ahead.

Toothless in attack

Bottom of the league in terms of position, Norwich also rank last for goals, expected goals, shots and efforts on target.

Teemu Pukki has netted both of their goals in the league so far this season, one of which was a penalty, while even second-lowest scorers Burnley have found the net seven times.

An xG output of 6.5 hints at some poor finishing, though a total of 21 shots on target works out at an average of just 2.33 per 90 minutes.

Defence like a colander

Norwich have now conceded 23 goals at a rate of 2.56 per 90 — that is worse than their average of 1.97 per 90 when they finished 13 points behind 19th-placed Watford in 2019-20. 

It hardly feels like a coincidence that the Canaries’ only two clean sheets have come against two of the other six Premier League teams who are yet to make it into double figures for the season, Burnley and Brighton.

Just like their attack, the Norfolk-based side’s defence ranked last in the xG standings having conceded 16.1 — although only 2.8 of that figure has come from set-pieces, which, statistically speaking, they defend better than nine teams including Liverpool.

But that is about as positive as it gets and goalkeeper Tim Krul looks set to be an extremely busy man over the next seven months.

A sign of the times?

Norwich were comfortably the best team in the Championship when winning the title in both 2018-19 and 2020-21.

But they were by far the worst team in the Premier League in 2019-20 and are already enduring another miserable campaign in the top tier.

While Brentford — and previously Sheffield United — have initially taken to the division like ducks to water in recent season, the Canaries and Fulham have both yo-yoed between the Premier League and Championship.

Do Norwich's struggles to adapt simply point to a widening financial chasm between the top two tiers of English football?

An all-time low?

In 2007-08, Derby made history for all the wrong reasons, winning just one of 38 games as they finished with the Premier League’s lowest points total of 11.

Norwich are currently going along at a rate of 0.22 points per game — meaning they are on course to finish 2021-22 with a mere eight points.

It is still early days but it feels entirely possible that Farke’s side could relieve the Rams of their unwanted record.