PREVIEW
19th vs 11th.
Friday Night Football sees two of the newly promoted teams meet at the Cardiff City Stadium.
With Cardiff second from bottom in the league table and Wolves second from bottom in the form table, both sides will be desperate for the points. A sub-plot also sees managers Neil Warnock and Nuno Espirito Santo meet for the first time since their heated exchange in the Sky Bet Championship last season.
The Bluebirds missed two late penalties and Nuno celebrated wildly at the end of the match, prompting Warnock to angrily refuse to shake his hand and later describe his opposite number as a ‘total disgrace’.
The build-up has seen both managers discuss the incident, with the Wolves boss saying they are now ‘good friends’. That friendship will count for nothing once the whistle goes in the Welsh capital, in what could be a scrappy but entertaining affair.
OPTA STATS
This is the first top-flight meeting between Cardiff City and Wolves since February 1962, a 3-2 win for Wolves at Ninian Park.
None of the last eight league meetings between Cardiff and Wolves in Cardiff have ended as draws – both sides have won four games apiece in that time.
Cardiff and Wolves met on Friday at the Cardiff City Stadium in the Championship last season – a 1-0 win for Wolves in April, with the Bluebirds missing two 90th minute penalties.
Wolves have won all four of their league matches played on Friday under manager Nuno Espirito Santo – all four were in the Championship last season.
Cardiff haven’t won consecutive top-flight home games in the same season since their final two matches of the 1961-62 campaign.
After two consecutive 0-0 draws in August, Cardiff have neither drawn or kept a clean sheet in any of their last 10 Premier League games (W2 D0 L8).
Wolves are winless in five Premier League games (D1 L4) failing to score on three occasions in that run.
The away team hasn’t won any of the last 20 Premier League meetings between two promoted sides (D7 L13), since Leicester won 1-0 at Burnley in April 2015.
Cardiff have scored the first goal on a league-low one occasion in the Premier League this season, in a game they went on to lose anyway (1-4 vs Chelsea in September).
Wolves’ Rúben Neves scored the winner in this exact fixture in the Championship last season – his last away league goal for the club to date.
My prediction- 2-1 to Cardiff (12/1 with SkyBet)
