Guardian writers' predicted position: 15th (NB: this is not necessarily Simon Burnton's prediction but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position: 11th

Odds to win the league: (via Oddschecker) 2,500-1

There was a period last season, for a couple of months from mid-October, when Norwich were simply phenomenal. Had the campaign begun on 16 October and finished on 16 December, a) it would have been much too short, and b) the Canaries would have finished second. Of the 10 games they squeezed between those dates they won six and drew four, with Arsenal and Manchester United among their victims.

It was a long, delicious blip on a graph that was otherwise flatlining. In those 10 games Norwich secured precisely 50% of their total points tally for the entire season, running at 2.20 per match when for the other 28 they mustered only 0.79. Having hauled themselves into the Christmas top 10, by mid-April they were in grave danger of relegation – whereupon they closed the season with three wins out of five to finish 11th. Along the way there was also an FA Cup defeat at home to Luton, when they became the first top-flight side to lose to non-league opposition for 24 years. It was, in short, a topsy-turvy season, with much more turvy than topsy.

Looking back at it now, a few themes leap out: Norwich won 70.5% of their points at home, with an away record that was better only than QPR and Reading (thanks to a 3-2 last-day victory over a managerless, distracted, post-Cup-final Manchester City that doubled their tally of away wins at a stroke). Their defence, eighth-best in the division at home, was ranked 18th on their travels. They attacked unconvincingly – with 41 goals they were outscored by two of the three relegated sides. Peculiarly they did poorly against clubs from the bottom half of the table, picking up 21 points in 18 games (again only QPR and Reading did worse), and well against the top half (only the top six did better).

There was, in short, plenty of room for improvement, particularly in attack. And the good news is that they have improved right there, securing two promising strikers in the shape of Celtic's Gary Hooper, for a fee of around £5m, and Ricky van Wolfswinkel, from Sporting Lisbon for £8.5m.

Like the long-term fans' favourite Grant Holt, who has now left to join Wigan, Hooper has worked his way from non-league football to the top flight with an occasional hiccup along the way – the less said about his 44-game, four-goal spell at Southend the better – but his last five seasons, which saw him score 132 times for Scunthorpe and Celtic at well over a goal every other game, have been consistently prolific. Van Wolfswinkel, meanwhile, proved his ability to settle quickly into new surroundings after moving from Utrecht to Portugal two years ago, while his girlfriend should know more than most about the itinerant life of the professional footballer: she is Bianca Neeskens, daughter of the Dutch World Cup great Johan.

The arrival of two expensive strikers is more than just squad strengthening, it signals a potential tactical shift. Last season the manager, Chris Hughton, favoured a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Wes Hoolahan playing off a lone striker, usually Holt. He barely had a choice – the manager spent the entire campaign with, at best, only one striker he considered of Premier League quality. Of all the forwards who played in the league last season – Holt, Steve Morison, Kei Kamara, Chris Martin, Simeon Jackson, Harry Kane and Luciano Becchio – three will start this one in the Championship, Kamara has returned to Kansas City, Jackson has joined the Bundesliga new boys Eintracht Braunschweig on a free transfer, Kane was on a short-term loan from Tottenham and only Becchio remains. After starting two games following his January arrival from Leeds, his future at the club does not appear particularly rosy either. Holt top-scored last season with eight league goals and none of the six other strikers got more than one.

With Hooper and Van Wolfswinkel – and Norwich continuing to be linked with Juventus's Fabio Quagliarella – Hughton has the option of pairing two forwards, though for most of pre-season he has stuck with that 4-4-1-1 formation and chosen one or the other, supported by Hoolahan or another new arrival, the Dutch international Leroy Fer. Hughton is by nature a conservative tactician, who has imposed his defensive inclinations on a team that scored 83 goals at a carefree 1.8 a game in getting promoted to the top flight in 2010-11, 52 at 1.47 a game in finishing 12th under Paul Lambert the following year, and then 41 at 1.08 a game in the current manager's first season in charge.

At the other end, despite occasional lapses – Norwich shipped four or more goals in matches against Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool (twice), Aston Villa and Fulham – the number of goals conceded fell from 66 to 58. "You can tell he was a defender himself as a player because he has a defensive mind-set," says Sébastien Bassong, whose performances in the centre of defence earned him the player of the season award. "He wants us to be really compact and defend really well. I think he would rather have us defend well and not concede a goal than go gung-ho and scoring five and conceding five. He is a good defensive manager."

This has nt always endeared him to fans accustomed to Lambert's more gung-ho approach and in February and March, as Norwich mustered four goals in 10 league matches, most of the attacking taking place at Carrow Road involved supporters barracking their manager, quite a few of them demanding his dismissal. Some of the players were also unimpressed, with Holt remarking that it "took me a while to get my head around" tactics that were "more defensive-minded" and "not attack, attack, attack".

Hughton has certainly not been concentrating on defence this summer, with that department looking solid following a total overhaul a year ago. Crucially John Ruddy will return as first-choice goalkeeper having missed nearly six months of last season after a thigh muscle was "basically ripped off the bone" during a game against Everton in November. Mark Bunn proved an able deputy but, when Ruddy returned for two games in May, Norwich won them both. Bassong will resume an impressive central defensive partnership with Michael Turner, who missed the end of last season with a shoulder injury (both have had minor surgery over the summer). The dependable right-back Russell Martin has just signed a new three-year contract, while on the left Javier Garrido, who spent last season on loan from Lazio, has made the move permanent. Martin Olsson, who has joined from Blackburn, can cover for Garrido or play ahead of him in midfield.

Anthony Pilkington and Robert Snodgrass provide midfield width, though both have had disrupted pre-seasons and will find their places under threat not just from Olsson but from the hugely promising 19-year-old winger Nathan Redmond, another summer arrival. Hughton gave a 16-year-old Redmond his first-team debut in 2010 while he was manager of Birmingham City and the initial £2m that brought him to Carrow Road looks a very keen price for one of the few players to emerge from England's European Under-21 championship campaign with much credit. Fer, should he not play off a single striker, will be stationed in central midfield alongside Bradley Johnson or Alexander Tettey and the first-team squad will be further supplemented by graduates of a productive academy that powered the club to victory in last season's FA Youth Cup.

It is impossible not to conclude that Norwich look significantly stronger now than they did a year ago but Hughton's aim for the months ahead is precisely what it was in 2012. "Making sure we start next season's Premier League in the division, that's always the objective," he said this summer. It is a results business, etc and so forth, but Norwich's fans await the opportunity to cheer a team that does not just attempt to survive but attempts to entertain. One day their manager may cast off the prosaic pragmatism that characterised his first campaign; and his summer recruits suggest that day may not be far away.

Player focus infographic