One of Norwich City's better days on the road in recent times still carried a brutal reminder of the high risk tariff in the Premier League.

Arsenal substitute Danny Welbeck settled a tight affair just before the hour mark when his shot clipped Seb Bassong on the way past John Ruddy during a five-minute spell where the Canaries were punished from veering away from the script.

Norwich's disciplined work without the ball had frustrated Arsenal's creative battalions before Mesut Ozil picked out the unmarked Olivier Giroud to find Welbeck shortly after his second-half entrance.

'What happened in that five minute spell is the game became a little stretched, which we didn't want, because we kept the spaces between the lines really compact,' said City chief Alex Neil. 'I thought we got behind the ball really well and really quickly and for that five minute spell it just became a little bit stretched. We looked quite threatening on the break and it actually came from us attacking. That is when you are always at your most vulnerable. We didn't recover quickly enough and at that stage Welbeck hits it and it possibly takes a little deflection off Seb and ends up in the back of the net.

'You can look at the other end, we had about four chances just as good as that and it doesn't go in the net in the first-half. That can be the difference.

'It is just decision-making and doing that in key areas of the pitch. I don't think anybody could say our general play was poor. I think we created enough chances to win the game. We limited them to little, in comparison to ours. You have to punish the opposition when you get the opportunities.'