Christoph Zimmermann insists no one can accuse Daniel Farke’s squad of not giving their all in Norwich City’s Premier League relegation scrap.

City host high-rollers Tottenham at Carrow Road on Saturday desperate for a positive result, after sinking to the bottom following a 1-0 Boxing Day defeat to Aston Villa.

The Canaries lie seven points from safety and must end a wretched home run that has seen them claim one point from six outings in Norfolk.

"You can't accuse any player of not leaving his heart out on the pitch, not being technically disciplined or not playing to their best," he said. "That's my opinion, others might judge it differently. But I think we saw a good performance (at Aston Villa).

"We had six or seven brilliant opportunities to score. Villa have two on target and I can only remember Tim (Krul) had one save to make from (Jack) Grealish. The other shot they had goes in. If there is one thing I can criticise it's our conversion rate. We need to be more clinical front of goal.

"The spirit since I have been here has never been in doubt. That has been our strength. It is easy to have that spirit when you are having success. Even though times are tough we are all in this together, and we know we are the only ones who can change it and who can take us out of this position."

Zimmermann endured a frustrating injury-hit start to his Premier League career but is at a loss to explain City's lowly status, on the evidence of his recent return to the ranks.

"I can only judge the games I have played since coming back and from what I see we are not one of the three worst teams in this league," he said. "I believe in each and every game we should have gotten points and on a good day we win every one of the last seven.

"Last season we won some games and we might not have been able to tell you why. It just fell our way. Obviously at this higher level the opponent is better, the players are better and sometimes you just get into that period where you struggle to win games and nothing comes your way and nothing comes easy. There's just one way to get out of it and that's for us to work hard and improve in the areas where we can improve. Yes we have left ourselves with a lot to do. Of course we'll keep fighting and there is a belief we can do it."