Iwan Roberts on Norwich promotion hopes, Stoke and a scare

I don't see why not because I don't see one club standing out. This time last year, nine games in, Leicester were flying, it was a case of Leicester and one other. But I don't get that now. Sunderland are up there at the minute but they've had a couple of minor hiccups, as have Burnley.

I think Norwich fans can definitely whisper the P word - you just don't shout it from the rooftops.

We’re nine games in and I've always said after 10 games you can reflect on where you are in the league. Currently they’re seventh, four points off the top two so they're in the frame.

I think Johannes Hoff Thorup’s done an unbelievable job for someone so young, only in his second job, with everything he has had to put up with - he has come to a foreign country, a club that I'm sure he didn't know too much about before he stepped through the door.

He's analysed the squad of players that he's got, a few have gone, he’s brought quite a few in and up to now everyone that he has brought in, whenever I've seen them play, have done really well and they look like proper players.

In a short space of time he’s done an incredible job, to be fair.

Norwich fans have to be excited, they have to be optimistic with 15 points in nine games and second top scorers in the Championship. I think they really are promising signs.

I guess they probably didn’t want the international break, but if you're going to have one, now is probably as good a time as any for it to come because they have been able to give the likes of Angus Gunn a couple of weeks to get himself fit after that muscle injury he picked up against Hull.

Marcelino Nunez too – it’s a shame he’s injured, but he hasn’t missed games for City because of the break.

Marcelino Nunez celebrates his brilliant goal against Hull (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

I think since he has been at the club he has been outstanding and the feeling you get is that he loves the football club, he loves the place, he loves Norwich – after that brilliant goal against Hull he ran to the fans behind the goal and he was kissing the badge and he looked like he genuinely loved it.

I think he's capable of playing that a little bit further forward, a bit more attacking, or if he's asked to play more of a disciplined role as well. He’s at a good age where he understands the game, better than he probably would have done four or five years ago.

Hopefully both he and Angus have had a couple of weeks of intense treatment up at Colney and they'll both be ready, because you're talking about two key players in the spine of your team.

Angus Gunn - vital to the cause (Image: Daniel Hambury/Focus Images Ltd)

You've got to have Angus fit, as simple as that, if you want to be serious contenders for either automatic or top-six. You can't rule either out at the minute with the way things have gone.

But you need your number one goalkeeper, you can't have him out for any length of time.

No disrespect to the other keepers at the club, but I don't think any of them is anywhere near as capable as Angus.

George Long would be his replacement - is he a capable deputy.? I think the jury is still out with that one.

My £5m choice

Former Canary Ben Gibson (Image: PA)

Stoke are next up for City this weekend, so there will be a reunion with Ben Gibson, who left Carrow Road for the Potteries in the summer.

Back in 2015 I was asked by a national newspaper journalist who I’d buy if I had £5m to spend on one player – and I said Gibson.

I’d seen quite a lot of him in his younger days at Middlesbrough and he was a big, strong commanding player. He gives you that balance as a left-footed centre half – they’re quite rare. A few years down the line he obviously signed for the club. I think he is probably an old-fashioned centre half. Anything in front of him I think he's more than happy with. Anything kept on the floor, played between the lines, played between him and the left back and him and his central partner which means he's got to turn, and he struggles, and I think he’d admit that.

I’m sure he’ll be looking forward to the game, but I do think with the pace that Norwich have got in forward areas that they could expose the lack of pace in the opposition defence. I saw Stoke at Swansea the other week in a dour 0-0 draw and they're not the quickest.

I would definitely fancy Josh Sargent against Gibson.

Something we shouldn’t forget by the way - it all came together for Stoke in their last home game at the beginning of the month when they beat Portsmouth 6-1 – coincidentally their biggest home win since they beat Norwich 5-0 in 2006.

Don't look now but...

Stoke are one of the wealthiest clubs in the Championship, they had that good run in the Premier League, but they haven't got anywhere near it since then.

Their stadium is fantastic when it’s full – but I always loved their previous home, the Victoria Ground – although I had probably my scariest moment in football there.

When I was at Leicester, we got them in the semi-final of the play-offs in 1996 - we drew 0-0 at Filbert Street in the first leg. I was injured but I went up to Stoke with the lads and I was sat in the dug-out. It was goalless at half-time and then we got a penalty which Garry Parker scored, in front of 5,000 Leicester fans, and that’s how it ended.

At the final whistle we've all sprinted off to the left-hand side where the Leicester fans were celebrating. We were there for a couple of minutes and then we've turned around and there's thousands of Stoke fans about 15 yards away - and all that was separating us from them was a line of police and police horses. And you're weren’t talking young Stoke lads, you were talking grown men, and they wanted blood.

That was scary. We got out okay – through the corner and then through some sort of corridor and away.