Cardiff v Fulham. Match preview

Last updated : 20 October 2018 By Michael Morris

Cardiff City v Fulham
Cardiff City Stadium
Saturday 20th October 2018, ko 3:00pm.

Early team news:

Fulham skipper Tom Cairney is nearing a return but won't be ready for this weekend.

Cairney's ankle problem flared up in the defeat to Everton and he won't be risked while Joe Bryan is remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.

However, Timothy Fosu-Mensah could be back in the fold despite dislocating his shoulder last month.

Meanwhile for Cardiff, Aaron Gunnarsson is in line for a return from his knee injury but Warnock's men will be without the suspended Joe Ralls after his red card against Tottenham.

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The Managers:

Neil Warnock:

“There’s no panic, but I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying not winning a game in eight, because that’s not me. Yeah, I said ‘let’s enjoy it’ before the season, but I don’t want the players to enjoy it now. This is the time to be ruthless and get points.”

Slavisa Jokanovic:

"Cardiff is Premeir League team like us, they arrive before us in the Premier League too and we know how they play, it’s not easy to play against this kind of team and we take the decision to not avoid our style, we need to adapt things for the Premier League and we know what we will find.

"It's true, probably we will have possession because Cardiff are not so interested about this kind of battle, but they have important weapons in this squad and we must take care about set pieces, about the second phase, long throws, flick ons and running behind us.

"They use the weapons very well, these weapons they have in the squad and we know them, they know us and we are ready to fight for three points like always."



Match Stats:

  • Cardiff City and Fulham have met in the Premier League twice previously - the Bluebirds won both games against the Cottagers during the 2013-14 season.
  • Fulham are without a clean sheet in their last 21 matches against Cardiff in all competitions - however, they haven't lost any of their previous seven games against the Bluebirds (W3 D4 L0).
  • Fulham are the only team that Cardiff have beaten more than once in the Premier League (two wins) - in the top-flight, they've won four of their six meetings with the Cottagers (P6 W4 D1 L1).
  • In the last nine meetings between Cardiff and Fulham in all competitions, the side scoring first has gone on to win just twice (W2 D5 L2).
  • Cardiff are winless in their last 12 Premier League games (D3 L9), losing the last five in a row. They last lost six consecutive games in league competition back in November 1985.
  • Cardiff are winless in their last eight Premier League home games (D2 L6), shipping 22 goals in that run. The last side they beat in the competition at the Cardiff City Stadium were Fulham (3-1 in March 2014).
  • Fulham have conceded 21 goals in the Premier League this season, four more than any other side. The last team to concede more in their first eight games of the season were Southampton in 2012-13 (24).
  • Fulham have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 22 Premier League away games. The last team to concede in more consecutively were Queens Park Rangers (23 between October 2011 and November 2012).
  • Cardiff manager Neil Warnock has won just one of his last 10 matches against Fulham in all competitions (P10 W1 D4 L5).
  • Fulham's Ryan Sessegnon has scored in all four of his matches in all competitions against Cardiff for the Cottagers, scoring a goal in each match.

 

The Officials:

Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistants: Matthew Wilkes, Derek Eaton
Fourth official: Andy Davies