David Hannant: The old chestnuts I'm already bored of hearing

As a fanbase, we are genuinely really lucky to have the level of decent analysis and insight we do - be it in these page, from colleagues at other publications or in our various fanzines, webzines and on social media.

Clearly, there are plenty of people who are in the know about Norwich City and the level of content we supporters get as a consequence is an embarrassment of riches.

Riyad Mahrez sends Tim Krul the wrong way to seal Manchester City's 5-0 rout of Norwich City (Image: Focus Images Limited)

However, whenever you become a Premier League club, you also have the pleasure of getting mentions here and there on the national front - which we all know is far from a pleasant experience.

Having worked in the past for a company catering to international football fans, I understand that there's a need to feed the content monster with what it wants, so the lion's share of interest does belong to the so-called big six.

If you're going to be a national pundit, clearly these clubs do need to be your strongest area of expertise, I understand that.

However, as a result, when you have to be seen to be acknowledging the other 14, knowledge that is more than skin deep is rare.

Time and time again we see as a result half-baked, half-formed waffle come out of pundits designed to make it sound like Norwich aren't just a complete and utter afterthought.

I'm under no illusions, we're far from the only team to get this treatment, but clearly, we are just going to have to get used to hearing them, again and again.

The best thing to do with these types of "analysis" is just look the other way - but if you do feel the need to respond, here's how we address them all.

'Naive little Norwich'

We start with this old chestnut - which has already plagued us off the back of two heavy defeats against teams you would expect us to be heavily defeated by. Naive little Norwich.

Yes, Saturday wasn't good enough - but once again we found ourselves accused of being naive for not playing in a way we neither have the personnel or the principles to do.

Imagine a boxer whose speciality is their uppercut. What would be the best way for them to go into a fight - use their uppercut or hide behind their jab?

Were City to totally change their approach just for one game and lose 1-0 instead of 5-0, we'd probably be accused of naivety for trying to play in a way we're not set out to do - we can't really win for this one.

'Norwich want to get relegated'

This one is difficult to respond to without resorting to four-letter words. It deserves as little oxygen as humanly possible.

Nobody sets out to get relegated, nobody sets out to lose - to suggest anybody is okay with the prospect is just nonsense.

Anyone who watches the team week-in-week-out will know there is literally no desire whatsoever for this and will be able to see the hurt that comes with it. So give over.

'Norwich never have a go'

Somebody please explain to me when the only way to "have a go" is to spend £30m-£40m on a single player.

A few season ago, Newcastle spent £40m on Joelinton, who has scored six league goals since. Is that how to escape the suggestion that we don't "have a go".

Furthermore, as it stands there aren't too many teams in the league that have spent more on incoming transfers than us this season. Yes, we had incomings for Emi Buendia, but we've still put out a decent outlay with potentially more to come.

Ditto, those who trot out this exhausting line either don't understand how the economy works or are just too used to clubs being able to draw from magic money trees with no danger of consequence - depressingly.

'Norwich don't deserve promotion'

Jamie O'Hara. (Image: PA Wire)

This one always hits a nerve, even if it is said with tongue in cheek. Unremarkable serial misfit, journeyman Jamie O'Hara was the latest to suggest our membership should be revoked because of our yo-yoing.

What utter nonsense - the way promotion works is that the best teams in the league are rewarded for being the best teams in the league with their promotion.

Let's take our most recent league opponents Manchester City - far and away the best team in the land last season.

However, Man City are notoriously good at not winning the Champions League. They qualify every year, yet never win the thing.

So by the same logic that Norwich don't deserve the Premier League chance earned, maybe Man City should be banned from the Champions League to give someone else a chance? Didn't think so...

And as for other teams "getting a chance", as far as I'm aware 23 other teams did have the chance to be promoted in our place - all they had to do was finish above us and none of them did.

Sadly, we're going to hear these snippets and soundbites time and time again this season - it's just the nature of the Premier League beast.

It's easy to get cross hearing them and I'm bored of it already. Depressingly, if we do end up relegated again, these pundits will probably feel vindicated - but at least we all know how wrong they are, however the season pans out.

Why being thumped by Man City could be a good thing

Norwich duo Billy Gilmour and Milot Rashica, right, try to make sense of the third Manchester City goal (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +44 7813 022858)

Two seasons ago, I jokingly dedicated this column to reasons beating Manchester City so heroically could be a bad thing.

While done with tongue firmly in cheek, it did to some extent pan out that way - but personally I'd rather have the memories of that day over scraping a 17th-place finish anyway.

So, it would be remiss of me not to assess the heavy defeat at the hands of Pep Guardiola's men with the same set of eyes - but flipped.

Of course, I'd rather we have picked up a result at the Etihad, but being perfectly honest, it was always massively unlikely.

I don't think describing Saturday as an off-day would be unfair, so if you're going to have a bad day at the office, it may as well be against City.

Had we been really at the races, there's still a pretty good chance we would have lost anyway. So getting the big off day out of the way in the game that on paper is the very hardest of the season is pretty handy.

Likewise, every newly-promoted team probably needs a baptism of fire wake-up call to what life in the top flight can be like. So again, it's much better they come against Manchester City.

Furthermore, the way City brushed us aside could quite easily set a few tongues wagging about how we're naive or a soft touch - so perhaps false senses of security will set in elsewhere.

It goes without saying that it's always better to win than lose, but likewise, would expending huge amounts of energy to beat Man City be worth it if it was followed by a big drought - like it was last time?

I joked after the game that it wasn't a particularly enjoyable pre-season friendly to watch, but that's exactly how we should treat it in hindsight.

Clearly, there is a hell of a lot that can be learned from that game and it's going to be a steep curve, but if we do take lessons from it and it changes the course of the season, then it can only be a good thing.