Newcastle 0-0 Norwich: Canaries further adrift of Premier League safety

Newcastle extedned their unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions

Norwich earned a point at Newcastle but were left frustrated by a number of wasted chances which saw them slip further away from safety.

Daniel Farke's side showed greater endeavour in a tight contest but leading scorer Teemu Pukki failed to take several chances.

The Finn, who has 11 Premier League goals this season, blazed over from a counter attack and was also thwarted on separate occasions by Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka and defender Federico Fernandez.

Sam Byram also went close but found Dubravka in fine form to deny the Norwich full-back from a corner.

Norwich started the day bottom of the table and six points from safety. This result, combined with others elsewhere, increased that margin to seven.

They might at least be able to take solace from their performance, but for Steve Bruce's Newcastle there were boos at full-time.

The home side's best efforts came from Allan Saint-Maximin, who forced Tim Krul into two good stops while Miguel Almiron should have headed in with the goal gaping.

It was another disjointed display from the hosts, although they are now four league games unbeaten for the first time this season.

Newcastle poor in attack once more

Newcastle introduced loan signings Danny Rose and Valentino Lazaro in the second half and Bruce's side were also hoping for a boost from Nabil Bentaleb, another new arrival, who made a first Premier League start in midfield.

The loan signing from Schalke showed some nice touches, but Newcastle showed once again that they tend to cause teams most danger when they are direct.

The game also demonstrated their need for an in-form striker as Joelinton, who has only scored twice this season, again struggled.

Newcastle relied heavily on the unpredictability of Saint-Maximin from the left wing.

His early shot was saved by Krul in an open start to the game, while his second-half cross almost led to an own goal by Grant Hanley, who was thankful to Krul's low stop.

But the hosts struggled to match the kind of intricate play which has become Norwich's trademark.

Instead they relied on power at both ends of the pitch, with their defence holding firm and Joelinton providing some aerial threat, shown when his header was stopped by Krul with Almiron somehow heading wide from the rebound.

There was plenty of effort and Newcastle raised their game in the second half when their debutants came on.

However a lack of goal threat proved costly. They had scored three injury-time goals in their past two Premier League games but there were to be no late heroics this time.

Norwich's class proves fruitless

What Newcastle would do for a striker of Pukki's class, although this was a day when the forward found himself up against one of the league's leading goalkeepers in Dubravka.

The visitors showed that despite their lowly position in the table, they are capable of carving teams open by playing between the lines, and combining that with speedy breakaways.

All that was missing was the finishing touch from their leading marksman.

Having earlier seen a rising drive tipped over, Pukki was then set through one-on-one against Dubravka only for Fernandez to clear his goal-bound effort.

Worse was to come. A speedy counterattack led to another chance blazed over the top, and he couldn't beat Dubravka either from another breakaway with Ondrej Duda firing the rebound into the side netting.

Norwich's threat was reduced once the excellent Todd Cantwell was withdrawn because of injury late on and in his absence Farke's side decided to play for a point.

But this was a game when they could and should have boosted their hopes of survival and improved on a run of just one win in their past 12 Premier League games.

Man of the match - Allan Saint-Maximin

In a Newcastle team short on creativity, Saint Maximin was their most dangerous threat. He found Tim Krul in fine form as the goalkeepers came out on top.

'We're totally disappointed'

Newcastle manager Steve Bruce told Match of the Day: "The most important thing is we haven't played well again, but we haven't been beaten. That's not a bad trait to have in the Premier League but we all know we have to play better. We haven't done enough and we are disappointed.

"We set ourselves up to be difficult to beat. If you look at the record we've got, we've done fantastically well. Now we have to get a little bit of quality in forward areas. We have to improve in the midfield too because the strikers need something to feed off.

"We gave the ball away so cheaply today, which is is disappointing."

Norwich boss Daniel Farke to Match of the Day: "We're totally disappointed because we totally dominated. The level of the chances should be enough to win, especially an away game. It's not a bad result, but we are more disappointed than happy.

"I always respect the players. They put themselves in tough positions. We were dangerous. They did everything we asked for. We want them to be more brutal with their finishing, but these things happen sometimes. I'm happy with the performance, not the result.

"Newcastle have so much quality up front. I was happy with how we controlled the game, but not the outcome. A nearly perfect performance deserves three points."

Toothless Canaries - the stats

• Newcastle are unbeaten in their last four Premier League games (W1 D3), their longest such run in the competition since November 2018.

• Only Manchester United (24 vs Burnley last month) have had more shots without scoring in a Premier League match than the 19 Norwich attempted.

• Norwich had 19 shots in this match - since 2003-04, only in one Premier League away game have the Canaries had more attempts (27 v Cardiff in February 2014).

• Norwich have now failed to score in eight different Premier League away games this season, two more than any other side.

• Norwich are winless in their last 13 Premier League games played on the first day of the month (D7 L6), drawing on 1st December, 1st January and now 1st February this season.

• In his first Premier League appearance for Newcastle today, Nabil Bentaleb created four chances for his team-mates - no player has created more in a single match for the Magpies this season.

What's next?

Newcastle have an FA Cup fourth-round replay at Oxford on Tuesday, then have their Premier League winter break. They travel to Arsenal on Sunday, 16 February (16:30 GMT).

Norwich also take a break next weekend, returning to action by hosting runaway league leaders Liverpool on 15 February (17:30 GMT).