Match Day Thread Cardiff City vs Arsenal - Matchday Thread

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Venue: Cardiff City Stadium
Kick-off Time: 1:30pm
Date: Sunday 2nd September 2018


Head-to-Head:
All: 44
Won: 20
Drew: 14
Lost: 10

Last six meetings:
Arsenal 2-0 Cardiff City
Cardiff City 0-3 Arsenal
Arsenal 4-0 Cardiff City (FA Cup)
Cardiff City 0-0 Arsenal (FA Cup)
Arsenal 2-1 Cardiff City (FA Cup)
Cardiff City 1-3 Arsenal (League Cup)

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Team News:​

Once again, there will be no Ainsley Maitland-Niles (fractured fibula) and Sead Kolasinac (knee) due to injury. Laurent Koscielny remains sidelined despite having returned to light training following the ruptured Achilles he sustained in May.

Cardiff will be without influential winger Mendez-Laing for the next 3 months, whilst they await further assessment results on Canadian winger Junior Hoilett.

More news to follow...

 

It's like last year again.
Constant games on a Sunday and the Europa league hasnt even started yet.

Should be another 3pts. I just want to see some improvements.

Hopefully Aubameyang will get his Season off and running. 3 games is the longest he's been without a goal for a while.

 

I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but Cardiff are a poor outfit and they are definite relegation candidates. They've got no outstanding players of note and although they are a solid defensive unit, I think will struggle to score goals this season (though I would not be surprised at all if they grab a couple on Sunday now that I've said this).

Most of the players they have are from last season. Sometimes managers make the mistake of assuming that the players which were good enough to get them promoted are good enough to keep them in a tougher division. Irrespective of their budget problems, I feel like this has been the situation here.

Some potential good news for us is that two of their main threats - Hoilett and Mendez-Laing - are likely to be out injured for this one.

It's no secret that we are susceptible on the counter-attack. Players, like Hoilett and Mendez-Laing, are speedy dribblers with good ball control, so it would be a big plus for us if they're unavailable. I'm hoping we defend a lot better than we did against West Ham because Warnock will definitely be looking to exploit us in wide areas.

Although they are a limited side, Warnock has drilled them well defensively. It may be tricky to break them down.

Ozil should be back for this one. Not anticipating a high scoring game, but still expecting us to win fairly comfortably.

 

It’ll be good to host the mighty Arsenal this weekend pals, hoping for a win or draw as you would expect! We have ordered a couple of buses just in case! Welcome!

 

Good to see Aubameyang and Lacazette starting. Would rather see Torreira instead of Xhaka. But overall that's a well balanced team.

Arsenal

• 1Cech
• 2Bellerín
• 20Mustafi
• 5Papastathopoulos
• 18Monreal
• 29Guendouzi
• 34Xhaka
• 8Ramsey
• 10Özil
• 14Aubameyang
• 9Lacazette

 

That is almost a perfect team in terms of starting 11, but Ramsey out wide and Xhaka starting in general are two serious question marks which will imbalance us.

I'm assuming the rationale for starting Ramsey on the flanks is that he has the energy and work ethic to track back and help Bellerin, unlike Mkhitaryan. As Cardiff have some nippy wingers, this would, in theory, counteract that threat. The problem is Ramsey is not positionally disciplined and I have the feeling that Bellerin will be left isolated again.

That being said, Cardiff aren't one of the stronger teams in the division and haven't scored a goal yet in the league. As dogged as they may be at defending, we do have the quality to break them down and I expect us to.

I'm expecting a 3-1 Arsenal win (I don't trust our defence to not concede).

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head about Ramsey tracking back instead of Mkhitaryan. We should have too much for Cardiff, but they will be up for this one.

Looking forward to seeing Lacazette and Aubameyang starting together.

 

any ideas why Torreira seems to be 3rd choice DM/CM as i assumed he would immediately become the first choice for that position.

 

Only we can let the ONLY remaining team in the 4 leagues to score their first goal!!!

 

We are still soft as **** in defence.

Also Xhaka needs to take some responsibility for that goal, as there was an easy pass onto Guendouzi and he opted to pass wide and gave the ball away.

 

Was just thinking the same,we haven't lost the knack of making average teams look good.

 

Scrub that, forget teams yet to score, only us can give teams yet to register a point/win get their first point/win! Blame Wenger all you like, not convinced with this guy!

 

We had 2 draws before today...so we do have some points. Hoping to have 3 more by the end of today!

 

Guess you called it.

 

How have we been playing. Seen we've already conceded the obligatory goal

 

You've had quite a few chances and look decent going forward, but the defence is all over the place.
Cech's passing out from the back has been typically awful and he had a lucky escape after giving it to Artur.
Xhaka's been terrible. Standard. French David Luiz has looked bright.

 

What a beauty from Auba

 

I was asleep and woke up in time to see us score. But we've made heavy weather of this as usual.

 

Yes. Yes, you have.

 

Absolutely f-----g shocking defending again.