Buendia just put a few million on his price tag

HOW Norwich must dread another transfer window.

Last summer it was Max Aarons attracting interest. This time it could well be Emiliano Buendia.

The Argentine playmaker has been linked with Arsenal this week and after his stunning winner here it isn’t difficult to see why.

Buendia pulled off one of the hardest skills in football — a firsttime volley meeting a floated ball over the top while on the run — as though it is the easiest thing in the world.

It was precisely the kind of silky intervention Norwich needed to kill off Barnsley’ s impressive resistance.

The goal also salvaged the festive fixture list for the Championship leaders after they’d lost to Watford on Boxing Day and then been held at home by QPR three nights later. Four points from nine sounds so much better than two from nine.

The win also keeps Daniel Farke’s side four points clear of Swansea at the summit and six ahead of Brentford, who had the afternoon off.

But Barnsley made them grind it out. The in- form Yorkshire side matched City in the first half before fading in the second, but had Luke Thomas scored instead of hitting the bar early on, it could easily have been different.

And they almost pinched a point in the dying embers of stoppage time when Michael Helik sliced wide with the goal at his mercy.

Farke is friends with Barnsley manager Valerien Ismael, having completed coaching badges together in Germany, and he offered advice about the division and its demands before Ismael accepted the Oakwell job.

Ismael obviously listened because Barnsley could well be dark horses for the top six if they keep playing like this. And let’s not forget they were without four regulars here because of two positive Covid tests and two needing to self-isolate.

‘We can make our lives easier but I am delighted with the win, three points and a clean sheet,’ Farke said. ‘Momentum can change quite quickly and after two games without a win we could have been nervous.

‘But we dominated the game from the first to the last second and created an unbelievable amount of chances. Emi’s goal was a top-class finish with great technique. He is our player and he will still be our player.’

Barnsley started the brighter and should have l ed when Cauley Woodrow’s shot deflected through to Thomas who struck the bar with Tim Krul well and truly beaten. It took Norwich 20 minutes to find their flow with Mario Vrancic playing the ideal ball for Teemu Pukki, who would have scored his 12th of the season but for Callum Brittain’s excellent goal-line clearance.

The leaders were improved after half-time with Pukki denied by the feet of Barnsley keeper Jack

Walton after Todd Cantwell played him in. Jacob Sorensen then tested Walton at his near post.

Then Kenny McLean floated a searching pass forward and Buendia read t he trajectory perfectly to strike the ball cleanly first time as it dropped, across

Walton and into the far corner. Cantwell had a great chance to settle it but couldn’t connect with Pukki’s cross and they were counting blessings when Helik skewed Callum Styles’ cross wide.

‘We have to be more clinical in such a game,’ said Ismael.