Norwich City manager Chris Hughton has suggested that his side were a little unfortunate to not take any points from yesterday's Premier League clash with Chelsea.

The Canaries were beaten 1-0 at Carrow Road thanks to Juan Mata's powerful 20-yard strike seven minutes before half time.

"Chelsea came into the game on the back of a real big win, but we were right in it from the first whistle until the end," said Hughton. "Our goalkeeper hasn't had to make too many saves, the one real bit of quality was shown by them and of course it was a wonderful finish by Mata.

"I thought at one stage when the game opened up I thought we could get something. We were close today. If we have a little more guile, a little bit more quality in that final third then we get something, but we gave a good account of ourselves.

"If we had got something from the game today I don't think anybody would have begrudged us that because we certainly worked enough for it."

Prior to their Boxing Day defeat, Norwich had won five consecutive league matches on home soil.