It was a simple response from the always calm and collected Mario Vrancic when he was asked how Norwich City can survive in the Premier League next season.
“I would say, to win the games against your competitors,” said the classy midfielder. “I think last season it was the case that we lost all the games against our competitors in the lower tier group.
“This is important - and obviously to stay cool and enjoy the Premier League.”
The departing 31-year-old knows all about the scale of the challenge for the Canaries as a self-funded club, having experienced the pain of relegation during 2019-20.
Daniel Farke’s team, hampered by an early defensive injury crisis, endured a miserable slide through the trap door but thankfully have bounced back as champions in style.
During that relegation campaign, City managed to take just 14 points from the 60 available against their direct rivals – the bottom half plus follow promoted side Sheffield United, who finished ninth.
In comparison, the Blades took 33 from that possible 60, including narrow home and away wins over Norwich.
The other promoted side, Aston Villa, scraped to 17th by just a point but took 27 points from the possible 60 against their direct rivals, including home and away wins over Norwich.
During the current top-flight campaign, Fulham and West Brom have already slipped straight back to the Championship with three games remaining and both have also struggled for those points against direct rivals – the current bottom half, plus the other promoted side, Leeds.
Fulham have taken just 15 from a possible 54 so far - only managing to beat nose-diving Sheffield United at Craven Cottage - and the Baggies have taken only 19 from a possible 57.
Fulham are a decent comparison for Norwich to look at too; trying to play expansive, attacking football under Scott Parker.
The Canaries at times during 2019-20 looked more comfortable against the better teams due to their style of play, beating Manchester City and Leicester and drawing with Arsenal and Tottenham at Carrow Road, as well as narrowly losing to Liverpool and Chelsea.
This season Fulham have won at Liverpool, Leicester and Everton, and held Liverpool, West Ham, Spurs and Arsenal to draws. Yet those valuable ‘six-pointers' have largely proved fruitless for the Cottagers.
That’s a frustration that Norwich and Farke know all too well, with a 2-0 home defeat to a winless Watford in November 2019 particularly painful, only managing victories over Newcastle, Everton and Bournemouth from those considered direct rivals during 2019-20.
We don’t yet know their final position or points tally but we do know that while Fulham and West Brom are going straight back to the Championship, Leeds have already secured survival this season.
That will drag down the survival rate for promoted clubs slightly, which during the past 10 campaigns has seen a healthy 19 of the 30 promoted clubs managing to survive.
During that past 10 years, just three of the teams promoted as champions have gone straight back down – including Norwich in 2020, of course.
So the survival figures are fairly encouraging, despite seeing Fulham and West Brom lurch to the next stage of their yo-yo process.
The Canaries have taken on something of a moral crusade though, as they return to the billionaires’ playground as millionaires at a particularly tumultuous time amid the controversy of the attempted European Super League breakaway.
Majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones had the foresight to see that English football was heading towards a financial crisis and, scarred by the pain of City’s own battle with debt, pursued the sensible course of becoming self-sufficient.
In turn that increases the difficulty of top-flight survival greatly and makes good recruitment, coaching and academy development absolutely essential – which is why sporting director Stuart Webber has pitched the more sensible ambition of remaining as one of the country’s top 26 clubs.
As part of that, as simply stated by Vrancic ahead of the expiration of his contract, beating those considered to be your direct survival rivals will go a long way to achieving that tough task.
Of course, you could also take all of those points against teams in the top half. While that would make for one heck of a surreal season for supporters, it would defy logic and, in reality, is highly unlikely.
Upsetting the big boys is great fun and makes for unforgettable moments. All City fans are dreaming of enjoying some more of that magic next season.
The bread and butter of survival is winning those crucial six-pointers though, inflicting twice the pain on those considered your direct rivals – as Farke and many in the City squad know all too well from their last crack at the Premier League puzzle.
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