As the scoreboard at Vicarage Road ticked past 14 minutes, a milestone was passed for Norwich striker Josh Sargent: he had gone 1,000 minutes without scoring a goal or providing an assist in the Premier League.
The 21-year-old joined the Canaries for a reported £8m from Werder Bremen in the summer – a relatively small fee in a league where Jack Grealish costs £100m and eight-figure sums are the exception as opposed to the norm, but it was a significant chunk of change for a club of Norwich’s stature all the same.
Sargent hadn’t looked remotely close to repaying the club’s investment in him during his opening 19 league appearances. Few could doubt his commitment to the cause, but there were plenty doubting his ability. His was a highlight reel fit for a Nick Hancock blooper’s video, with one slapstick miss following another.
Finally, at the 20th time of asking, the drought that threatened to carry on ad infinitum ceased at the most opportune moment imaginable. Sargent’s first and second goals in English football will be priceless if Dean Smith’s side manage to wriggle away from the bottom three.
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Leeds have become the Premier League's good guys thanks to Bielsa's creative problem-solving21 January, 2022Even if the goals don’t prove to be of crucial significance come the end of the season, Norwich fans will still talk of Sargent’s first for the club for years to come. There didn’t appear to be any imminent threat to Daniel Bachmann’s goal as Samir shepherded a loose ball behind for a goal kick, but Teemu Pukki was rewarded for his persistence when plenty of others would have given up.
Pukki hunted the Brazilian down, nicked the ball off his toes on the goal-line and pulled the ball towards Sargent in the six-yard-box. Typically of Norwich’s season, Pukki’s pass and Sargent’s run did not align as either would have hoped; untypically for Norwich’s season, it didn’t matter. As the ball threatened to skid beyond him, Sargent instinctively flicked the heel of his right boot towards it and somehow managed to achieve the required elevation to lift it up and into the goal via the underside of the crossbar. Olivier Giroud, eat your heart out.
Thankfully, VAR allowed it to stand after peeking into a potential push from Pukki on the Watford centre-half. Goals of this aesthetic quality should be given the benefit of any doubt.
It was a moment of breathtaking brilliance, that was sensationally undersold by Norwich’s official Twitter account. “GO ON JOSH” began the Tweet. “Pukki wins the ball in the Watford area and plays it to Sargent who slices the ball home in off the crossbar!” The social media manager sheepishly issued a correction once the intent of Sargent’s effort became clear, but to be fair to them, nobody else could quite believe he’d pulled it off either.
As first ever Premier League goals go, it will take some beating.
The second wasn’t bad either. Milot Rashica, himself a non-scoring acquisition from Werder Bremen, picked out a delightful cross to the back post and Sargent, fittingly given Norwich’s luminous salmon pink shirts, leapt highest to meet it, heading the ball powerfully into the ground and into the bottom corner. A player and perhaps a club transformed. How Smith must hope that Sargent can maintain this confidence in front of goal from now until the end of the campaign.
Watford, who were bafflingly bad throughout, looked as though they might be granted a reprieve when the floodlights followed the players’ lead and gave up for the night. First the power went and then the generator followed and for a time, it looked as though Mike Dean might call time on the contest as over 11 minutes elapsed. A backup generator never was found, for the floodlights or Watford’s performance.
Eventually, common sense prevailed and the game continued, albeit with the dimmer switch turned down. It surely won’t be long until the lights of the calamitous Claudio Ranieri era are turned off completely.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/35dYi9C
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