Cardiff vs Manchester City

BPL 2018-19 – Cardiff vs Manchester City Match Preview

Manchester City are looking to bounce back from their shock defeat against Lyon in the Champions League as they go away to Cardiff who are still searching for their first win of the season! In the Premier League, City are flying high again with 4 wins out of 5 and being the tied highest scoring team, meanwhile Cardiff have lost again last week to Chelsea 4-1. This is the third big 6 team that Cardiff are facing in as many fixtures in a row! Can Cardiff pull of a shock or will City go rampant in Wales?

Key Facts

Cardiff City are winless as mentioned already this season. From 5 games they drew 2 and lost 3. Their only draws came against 10 men Newcastle and 10 men Huddersfield.

After scoring no goals in the first 3 games, Cardiff did find the back of the net against Arsenal twice and scored at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea. Being able to score against two of the big 6 should definitely give them confidence going forward now.

Cardiff did actually beat Man City at home the last time they faced in Wales in a league game 3-2. A lot has changed since however.

Cardiff and City actually met in this stadium this year in the FA Cup and Manchester City won comfortably 0-2.

Manchester City look strong this season again, bar that Lyon loss they’ve won 4 drawn 1 and lost none and sit 3rd in the Premier League.

Aguero and Sterling are City’s top scorers in the Premier League with 3 each. However Aguero is out of form as he’s not scored since his hattrick against Huddersfield while Sterling has scored in 2 previous league fixtures.

Manchester City have scored 14 goals in 5 games which is nearly 3 on average in the league.

Man City have only kept 2 clean sheets in 6 BPL/CL games this season.

Team News

Cardiff: Cardiff have a few potential absentees for this match. Harry Arter could be out after suffering an injury last week at Chelsea. Furthermore, Josh Murphy and Aron Gunnarsson are in massive doubt aswell and Mendez-Lang is a long term absentee. Otherwise, everyone else is ready to go for Cardiff. Obviously, its not going to be their strongest 11 against City due to some players missing but this team at home could be a tough fixture for City. Expect Cardiff to be on the back foot, but as we saw last week, this team does not mind to go at a big club. Neil Warnock has said last week if you just defend at Chelsea you’re guaranteed to lose, but if you go at them then there may be a chance and although they lost 4-1 they did make it nervy for Chelsea and that same approach should apply against Man City. We expect the same approach from Cardiff. They’ll be on the back foot of course but they will have a go at City, especially on counter attacks.

Manchester City: Top assist man (4) Benjamin Mendy is back in contention to start for Man City over Delph at LB after he missed the previous 2 games. Aguero is also expected to make a start after sitting on the bench against Lyon and being used as impact sub. Pep has rotated his squad in every game this season therefore predicting it seems kind of pointless. One day he’ll use Sane and Mahrez the next its Sterling and Bernardo. Of course KDB and Bravo are still out with long term injuries. We’ll probably see a rotated side from the one that played Lyon again because that performance wasn’t good enough and we know how Pep demands perfection and wont shy away from changing the team again. City are going to be on the front foot, their team is still way better than Cardiff regardless who plays and they will be expected to bounce back. Expect a very motivated Manchester City side here.

Betting Tips and Predictions

Man City are going to win comfortably in our opinion. Because they put in such a poor performance midweek, we should expect this team be fully motivated and with Pep back on the touchline there’s no reason why they shouldn’t bounce back. Cardiff have clearly shown that they cannot defend against the big 6 teams, Arsenal put 3, Chelsea put 4 past them. Sure, Cardiff have been able to score in these games, but let’s be fair they’re not going to score against every big 6 team. Since -1.5 AH is only tipped at 1.47, we’re going to back City’s -2 AH at 1.75. City already beat Cardiff in 2018 here 0-2 with similar squads in the cup and there’s no reason why that should change. In the league City are flying, Cardiff are struggling. We’ve got City winning this match 0-3. Sterling to score anytime it a bet worth a look as he’s showing great form right now. We won’t back any overs because odds for 2.5 are too low and 3.5 looks to risky as Cardiff are likely to not score.

Match Odds (TonyBet)

Cardiff Win – 21.00

Draw – 8.00

Manchester City Win – 1.17

KICK OFF – 22nd September 2018 – 3pm UK Time