Will Jennings: Norwich's form - blip or a wider problem?

Having - sadly - been one of the hardy Norwich City souls in the bet365 Stadium away end, we could have played for hours and not scored as a total lack of inspiration in the final third left us stewing over a third league defeat in four.

Granted, Andre Brooks missed two golden opportunities in the opening period, but after the break, and despite all that possession, Philippe Clement’s players looked totally lost of ideas against a Stoke side without a single point up until that night.

So, what’s gone wrong?

That’s the million-dollar question us City fans are pondering after a largely laboured start to the season that has lacked much of the attacking fluency that saw us fly up the table last term.

Cause for concern, or merely an early blip?

Much has been said on social media after our below-par Potters performance and, truth be told, I’m somewhere stuck in the middle.

Of course, I would like to think this is purely just a shaky start and Clement’s players - who firmly proved themselves in the second half of last season - will begin to find their feet.

But, equally, how can it be that this same set of players, now with a full pre-season with Clement under their belt, have looked so much less effective across the first 360 minutes of Championship football?

Of course, we did batter Burnley - which mustn't be overlooked and did, albeit briefly, inject some much-needed optimism into the start of the campaign.

But after Tuesday night, plus that Millwall mauling and admittedly unfortunate failure to overcome West Brom on the opening day, that has now been firmly extinguished as City prepare for a tough-looking trip to Sheffield United.

Lose that, and the subsequent midweek home game against Birmingham in front of an increasingly frustrated Carrow Road crowd starts to look very big indeed.

I don't want to strike too much of a negative tone here and, as mentioned, do have complete faith in Clement that he can get this team back firing on all cylinders.

But there's no denying this season has been a predominantly tough watch so far and, having also seen the Belgian boss’ quotes on Tuesday night, needs to turn around quickly.

Clement claimed we deserved to win the game but again, having been there, it truly felt like we could have played for weeks on end and still been incapable of putting the ball in the back of the net.

Yes, we obviously did dominate possession and yes, it's clearly a different game if one of those Brooks chances go in, but that second half as City sought to get back into it made for fairly uninspiring viewing.

But to Bramall Lane we go.

And, to be fair to Clement, if there is one thing he has proved since he's been here it's that he knows how to turn things around and conjure up memorable wins on the road.

Millwall, Wrexham, QPR and West Brom last year immediately spring to mind and, had it not been for Amankwah Forson's inexplicable last-minute miss, there would have been another three points to savour in the Steel City.

With the returns of Jovon Makama and Paris Maghoma on the horizon - who knows what difference they would have made on Tuesday night - we've got to have faith that this City side will spark into life at some stage.

Let's not forget, that storied title-winning season of 2018/19 saw us muster just five points from our opening six games before Daniel Farke's heroes embarked on a barnstorming run towards the summit.

After the miracles he masterminded last term, there is no reason why Clement cannot follow in the German's legendary Carrow Road footsteps.

Such is the nature of the Championship, if City can keep their heads in front of an inevitably hostile South Yorkshire crowd and follow up a result with a win back on home midweek soil, what happened at Stoke will swiftly be forgotten.

We can only hope that will be the case - and this sluggish start to the season is merely only that, and not something more ominous.