The Football Professor: Norwich go the distance
Published 22:15 17/03/12 By MirrorFootball
The Premier League’s hardest-working team will be on show at St James’ Park today.
According to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, Norwich City have covered the most distance of any top- flight team.
Collectively, the Canaries have clocked up 1,879 miles. That kind of tenacity and work-rate emphasises why they’ve made an immediate impact on their return to the top flight and look certain to survive this season.
Intriguingly, Newcastle had led this table earlier in the season. But the Toon have now slipped to sixth in the rankings with 1,811 miles.
Despite that, Newcastle have more players who have covered over 100 miles than any other team in the Premier League, with nine of the Magpies in the “100 mile club.”
Newcastle lost 2-1 at Arsenal in their last outing. Hatem Ben Arfa scored the opener for Newcastle and now has three goals in the Barclays Premier League from just 16 shots.
Yohan Cabaye covered the most ground for Newcastle in that game with 5.27 miles, as the visitors out-ran Arsenal by 50.15 miles to 48.75 miles.
Norwich will have to guard against the Toon’s crosses. The Newcastle full-backs have delivered 126 balls into the penalty area.
The Canaries were held to a 1-1 draw in their last game against Wigan last Sunday.
David Fox covered the most ground in that game, with 6.54 miles, as Norwich out-ran Wigan by 62.35 miles to 59.4.
Wesley Hoolahan scored for Norwich with his third goal of the season, coming from 26 shots at goal with exactly half on target.
Hoolahan also has three assists to his name this season
And he is third in the list for the Canaries for overall distance covered, at 130 miles.
