Sporting director Stuart Webber says Norwich’s 7-0 Premier League defeat at Chelsea was “disgraceful” and “embarrassing” for the club’s fans.

But they sit bottom of the table on two points from nine games and have not won a top-flight match since March 2020.

“They deserve better than that but it wasn’t through lack of work or lack of effort,” Webber said.

“Saturday was disgraceful to be honest and embarrassing for our 1,500 supporters, who made that trek early in the morning.

“When you lose 7-0 everyone says ‘they didn’t try’, it is an easy thing to say but it is not true and we have to turn it around. We can’t go into games writing them off as ‘oh, we’ve got no chance in that game’.”

Norwich’s start to the campaign has already seen them face reigning champions Manchester City, European champions Chelsea and likely title candidates Liverpool.

The Canaries host Leeds on Sunday aiming to put an end to a 19-match winless sequence in the Premier League, with Webber conscious of a barrage of criticism aimed in the direction of head coach Daniel Farke and their approach to player recruitment.

“We’ve not come to this league to be tourists and swapping shirts with other players, we’re here to show we can stay in this league and compete in this league,” Webber added.

“It always annoys me in football that everyone always goes for one person. When we were successful last year, we were not successful just because of Daniel [Farke], we were successful because we have 300 staff working hard, we have fantastic players and we were successful.

“We are being unsuccessful now. That means we have 300 staff that need to do more and players that need to do more. For anyone to say we don’t deserve to be at this level is wrong.

“For people to say that we’ve given up and that we’ve accepted relegation already, I can’t accept that. Everyone at this club works too hard to accept that. It hurts and I’d heard enough and said that I felt I wanted to come out and say something.

“I don’t believe in being bullied and sitting in the corner when people throw punches and insults at us. It’s time to fight back.”