Chris Hughton has warned his Norwich City players that only a repeat of their improved showing against Manchester United will do against struggling Crystal Palace in a crunch New Year's Day Premier League clash.

Danny Welbeck's 57th minute strike earned the champions a hard-fought win after the Canaries' turned in a vastly improved display from the Boxing Day loss to Fulham and Hughton wants more of the same at Selhurst Park. Palace will go above the Canaries with a victory after City suffered a second consecutive festive loss at Carrow Road.

'They are all big games. It seems like every one we play falls into that category. It is a very competitive division,' said Hughton. 'There are a lot of teams now bunched around us and we know points are vital. This month has been like our season in the sense it has been in fits and starts. When we seem to get a bit of momentum we seem to drop that again and what we have lost at the moment is that winning momentum. I felt this performance was back up to what we want to see. If you look at this game and the Fulham one by far the biggest disappointment for me was what happened on Boxing Day. The performance level wasn't anywhere near and if we had done I am quite sure the result would have been different. Fulham was a result we didn't want and the performance levels were not to the standards we accept. We need to take this type of quality into the Palace game. We've had highs and lows, some good performances and some big defeats. It is about trying to get back to a level of consistency, which we thought we had done before these two games.'