Cardiff City v Manchester City
Cardiff City Stadium
Saturday 22nd September 2018, ko 3:00pm.
Game 6 of the Premier League season and Cardiff face quite a challenge to get their first win. The teams last met earlier this year in a controversial FA Cup tie. The last League meeting was in 2013 when Cardiff shocked the eventual title winners with a 3 - 2 win.
Early team news:
Cardiff midfielder Aron Gunnarsson has suffered a setback in his recovery from a knee injury.
The Iceland international is yet to feature for his club this season. Warnock is due to assess several of his players who are carrying minor knocks but Harry Arter is set to return after illness.
Man City will definitely be without Eliaquim Mangala, Claudio Bravo and Kevin De Bruyne.
There are also doubts regarding the fitness of Benjamin Mendy, meaning Fabian Delph will start at full-back once again.
Sergio Aguero has recovered from his ankle injury and should replace Gabriel Jesus in attack.
The Managers:
Neil Warnock:
“He’s (Guardiola) so important there I think it’ll bring the best out of them.
“If you think Pep’s worried about Cardiff City that’s fantastic. He won’t be let me assure you, he’ll be more concerned with own his players because if they play (like they can) they beat everyone in the country, not just Cardiff City.
“As long as we prepare them as best we can to try and make a game of it, I want us to try and enjoy it,” he added.
“It is difficult when you lose but I want them to try and show they can put up a good game against them without just having everyone at the back and defending for our lives all the game.”
Pep Guardiola: (when asked about tackles in the Cup game played earlier in the year)
“I’m not going to discuss a game that happened six or seven months ago, the decisions of the referee. I’m not going to play that game.”
“He’s (Sane) forgotten it. It’s a new game. It’s months ago, a different competition, an FA Cup game. Now it’s a Premier League game.
“We’ll play our game and try to maintain the physicality. It’s happened in all the games and now we try to make a good performance.”
Match Stats:
- This will be the third meeting between Cardiff and Man City in the Premier League, with the previous two encounters providing 11 goals - Cardiff winning 3-2 at home and losing 4-2 at the Etihad in 2013-14.
- Cardiff City have won just one of their 14 Premier League games against the 'big six' sides (W1 D1 L12), losing each of their last 10 conceding 30 goals in the process.
- Cardiff have conceded in each of their last 20 top-flight games against the reigning champions, however the Bluebirds have only failed to score once in the previous 13 such contests - their most recent game against Manchester United in January 2014.
- Cardiff are winless in their last nine Premier League matches (D3 L6) since a 1-0 win at Southampton in April 2014.
- Man City have won eight of their last nine Premier League matches played immediately following a Champions League game, with the exception being a 2-3 home defeat against Manchester United in April.
- Manchester City haven't lost any of their last 31 Premier League games kicking off at 3pm on a Saturday (W27 D4), since a 0-1 home defeat against Stoke in August 2014.
- Manchester City have the highest (89.8%) while Cardiff have the lowest (63.6%) passing accuracy in the Premier League this season. The Citizens have attempted 2111 more passes than the Welsh side this season (3462 to 1351).
- Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has scored 12 and assisted two more in his last 12 Premier League games against newly promoted sides. However, he's failed to score in both meetings against such sides this season (vs Wolves and Fulham).
The Officials:
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett
Fourth official: Darren England