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Teemu Pukki celebrates scoring Norwich’s first goal against Bolton at the University of Bolton Stadium.
Teemu Pukki celebrates scoring Norwich’s first goal against Bolton at the University of Bolton Stadium. Photograph: Dave Howarth/PA
Teemu Pukki celebrates scoring Norwich’s first goal against Bolton at the University of Bolton Stadium. Photograph: Dave Howarth/PA

Teemu Pukki scores twice for rampant Norwich in thrashing of Bolton

This article is more than 5 years old

It would be hard to imagine a more emphatic reaction to a setback. Norwich recorded their joint-biggest win of the season, reclaimed the lead in the Championship less than 72 hours after losing it and delivered the kind of elegant evisceration that serves as a statement. In leapfrogging Leeds they also surpassed their points total for last season, and made Wednesday’s defeat at Preston look an anomaly.

“It was important to respond,” said the Norwich manager, Daniel Farke. “It was a top-class performance.”

The other eulogy came from his Bolton counterpart. “Some of their football was out of the Premier League,” said Phil Parkinson after Norwich exposed a gulf in class that means these clubs could well be separated by two divisions come August.

Norwich accumulated 68% of possession and amassed 22 shots, finding and exploiting space at will, victory orchestrated by their unlikely alliance in attack. Teemu Pukki arrived on a free transfer. Marco Stiepermann is the No 10 who spent part of last season operating at left-back. The Finn advanced his candidacy for the unofficial title of signing of the season by finding the net for the sixth successive game as two more made him the division’s top scorer. If he was not man of the match it was because the German Stiepermann was exceptional. They each set up a goal for the other.

If Pukki is the face of an improbable promotion charge, Stiepermann is its personification. Like Farke, he has a stint at Borussia Dortmund’s reserve team on his CV and, like him, he had an undistinguished first year in England. Now each qualifies as a revelation.

His display was all the more admirable as a muscle problem almost ruled him out. “He was pretty close [to missing it],” said Farke. “We tried everything to get him fit.”

The medical team’s work was rewarded by Stiepermann’s clinical brand of creativity. He supplied a defence-splitting pass when Pukki broke the deadlock. A role reversal followed as the specialist finisher turned provider, Pukki delivering the sharp cutback – “a world-class assist,” Farke said – and Stiepermann the precise first-time finish.

Pukki showed similar accuracy with a deft lob after he met Christoph Zimmermann’s long pass with an immaculate touch. “The best goalscorer in the league,” said Parkinson.

Pukki was aided and abetted by elusive, excellent wingers in Emiliano Buendía and Onel Hernández, and the former volleyed the third goal following Kenny McLean’s chipped pass.

The former Aberdeen player is Norwich’s fifth-choice central midfielder and became their fifth player this season to miss a spot kick, awarded for Mark Beevers’s trip on Pukki.

“Blame me,” Farke said. “I chose him. His record in Scotland was, I think, 15 out of 15.” It is none from one in England, with McLean’s effort saved by a Norwich alumnus.

Remi Matthews was born in Norfolk and spent 14 years on the books at Carrow Road but while another former Norwich keeper, Declan Rudd, frustrated Norwich on Wednesday, the Bolton man’s heroics amounted to a damage-limitation exercise.

“We could easily have added a few more goals,” said Farke. Matthews denied Pukki three times and Hernández twice, plus Stiepermann, Buendía and McLean. “Remi is in a good vein of form,” said Parkinson.

Despite Matthews’s acrobatics, Norwich are now the division’s most prolific team and Bolton its least. They have fewer goals than Pukki alone and, while City have one prolific striker, Wanderers have two impotent ones. Josh Magennis has not scored a league goal since September and Clayton Donaldson has one in a year. When the latter volleyed a shot out for a throw, it summed up his side’s day.

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