It isn’t too often that Manchester City have to bounce back from a poor performance and a defeat but this weekend it is something they will have to do. They head to Wales to take on Cardiff in the Premier League and go on the back of a night to forget in Europe on Wednesday. They were beaten 2-1 at home by French side Lyon in what was the shock of the first week, making headlines all around Europe. It is back to the Premier League for City now though, and they must focus on picking up three points to maintain their good start to the season.

Cardiff sat back at watched as City played during midweek, while The Bluebirds haven’t played since a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea last weekend. There is never an easy time to play Manchester City, but the chances are that Neil Warnock would rather have seen them win in the Champions League, to save them heading to Cardiff looking to put things right. City are dangerous at the best of times, but when they are wounded from a defeat, we often see them come out better and stronger.

Can Cardiff’s Tactic Work in the Premier League?

After five games, Cardiff are yet to pick up a Premier League win. They have been beaten three times, and picked up two draws to give them two points which keeps them just ahead of the relegation zone. It is expected they will finish in the relegation battle, and at the start of the season they were the favourites to be relegated this season. Cardiff play a very unique and defensive style of football, and with no win to show for it so far, does this style work and is it worth Cardiff continuing to employ it?

The basics of the Cardiff system are very simple. They are strong in defence, with their ful backs holding their position more often than not, they have midfielders who like to sit in and basically get behind the ball and defend as often as possible. The idea is that they will prevent their opponents from playing, do their best to frustrate them and hopefully pounce on a set piece of some kind when they get an opportunity to. This is something they appear to be going with, and they are certainly set up in a way that compliments this kind of football, but the chances of it actually working and paying off for them look to be slim.

To be a defensive team in the Premier League you have to be exceptional at the back, which is something that Cardiff are not. They also need a top quality striker because chances are going to be few and far between, again something they don’t have. While the players may suit the system, this isn’t something you can do with Championship players, you need to install genuine top class players into key positions for this to work.

In their opening five games Cardiff have scored just three goals, a record that will not elevate them to Premier League safety. They are going to have to increase the amount of times they get the ball forward, and do something with it if they want to survive in the Premier League. While they clearly have a plan to play this way, it is something that I don’t think is working, and something they are going to regret as the season develops.

Manchester City Unlikely to Have it All Their Own Way this Season

It was a masterclass of league football from Manchester City last season, they won the Premier League with ease and left everyone else wondering what they needed to do to keep up with them. This season the gap between City and the rest of the teams looks to be as big as last season, but with one exception and that is Liverpool. The Reds have started the season very brightly and spent a lot of money fixing their problems with the intention of challenging for the title either this season or next, or both.

With an electric front three in attack, Liverpool are probably one of the few teams in the world who can match City in that department, and with the additions in defence there is  a good chance that Liverpool can push City all the way this season. While I think that the team from Manchester will come out on top eventually, this title race is going to be very close and Liverpool are going to push all the way.

This will test the character and resilience in the Manchester City line up, can they battle and work hard when the going gets tough? What will happen when they have to chase Liverpool down, rather than lead all the way like last season? Liverpool are already slightly ahead, so it is City playing catch up, not catch me if you can, and it will be interesting to see how that works for them this season.

Cardiff vs Manchester City Betting Tips

I don’t think this is a good weekend to be playing Manchester City after their European defeat during midweek and I think Cardiff will know that. City will come here with a point to prove and they will want to put straight what was quite an embarassing night against Lyon on Wednesday. Cardiff are going to have to brace themselves for that, and no matter how much defending they do on Saturday, it won’t be enough.

I think City have enough to win this game comfortably, and I also think they will want to go out and do that, I don’t expect to see them easing off when they go ahead, this is an important game for them to send a message. Not only am I backing City to win this one, but I am going to use the handicap line to get more value in a game that I could see them winning by three or four goals. The handicap line offering the best value looks to be -2, so that means a City win by three or more is required for the bet to win.

Normally I would be wary backing a team who have played midweek to win by such a margin but I think the circumstances mean that City will not ease off and they will continue to search for goals against Cardiff. They also rested a handful of players against Lyon, which will help them, and I think overall this is going to be a very comfortable afternoon for Manchester City as they put their defeat on Wednesday behind them.