Premier League rankings: Norwich City analysis, line-up & predicted finish

The last five Sky Bet Championship champions have all stayed up the following Premier League season and Norwich could be the latest title winners to beat the drop.

Norwich almost certainly won't be doing a Wolves – Wanderers finished seventh and qualified for Europe – but the Canaries claimed 94 Championship points which was the same as Rafael Benitez's Newcastle and a brilliant effort considering City were 25-1 for the title ante-post.

The success of Leicester, Bournemouth and Burnley will also give Norwich hope that the gap is not insurmountable, even if they are set for the odd thumping along the way.

Norwich improved by 34 points in Daniel Farke's second season at the helm to suggest he could be the latest German coach to have a positive influence on English football and he will be ably assisted by sporting director Stuart Webber.

It was Webber who started the Huddersfield revolution – or should that be Webberlution? – and he has pretty much done the same in Norfolk as he did in West Yorkshire.

Young full-backs Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis have made major impressions on the first team, although recruitment has been spot on as the likes of Christoph Zimmerman, Emi Buendia, Onel Hernandez, Moritz Leitner, Marco Stiepermann and Teemu Pukki have all become influential.

Buendia finished with 12 assists, but it was Pukki who stole the show.

The Finnish forward had previously flopped at Celtic and little was expected before he claimed the Championship Golden Boot with 29 goals.

Webber will be hoping this summer's signings such as Josip Drmic, Ralf Fahrmann and Patrick Roberts are similarly competent despite the prudent outlay.

Questions will be asked as to whether the centre-back pairing of Zimmerman and Ben Godfrey can cope at this level and, perhaps more importantly, whether Pukki will be pukka in the Prem.

It's also worth bearing in mind that according to Opta's ratings, Norwich scored almost 20 more goals from open play than their expected-goal figures, so expect survival to be tight.

Possible team - 4-2-3-1: Krul; Aarons, Zimmermann, Godfrey, Lewis; Trybull, Leitner; Buendia, Stiepermann, Hernandez; Pukki

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