Norwich need a siege mentality in battle to beat the drop – Dean Smith

Norwich head coach Dean Smith has challenged his squad to show a “siege mentality” as they bid to beat the odds and stay in the Premier League.

The Canaries sit bottom and five points from safety following a lacklustre 3-1 home defeat by Brentford in a game which Smith had labelled as “must not lose”.

While Smith is not about to throw in the towel just yet ahead of hosting Chelsea on Thursday, the Canaries boss accepts it is now all or nothing over the run-in as Norwich look to pull off what would be a most remarkable escape.

“The squad has been through a lot of ups and downs over the last three or four years here and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy in the Premier League,” said Smith.

“What we have to do is go and show everybody and have that siege mentality that we can take every game as it comes and go and win games.

“There are 33 points still to play for and we will keep playing for every one of them.”

Norwich paid a heavy price for not making the most of early opportunities against Brentford, with Ivan Toney going on to complete a hat-trick – including two from the penalty spot.

After hosting Chelsea, the Canaries head to Leeds before Burnley come to Carrow Road in April.

Smith, though, maintains it must all be about the here and now as Norwich aim to pull of a shock positive result against the European champions and FIFA Club World Cup winners.

“At the moment nobody knows what is going to be enough (to survive), so we can’t pick and choose games that we think we can win and ones that we can’t,” the Norwich boss told a press conference.

“We have got 11 games to go, and we have only got 17 points, so we know every game is important to us.

“Chelsea is as big as Leeds, and we have got to go out and perform and get