Chelsea host new boys Cardiff City in their first match after the break. Neil Warnock says they will not park the bus and he should be believed.
Very few, if any, have Cardiff earmarked to stay in the Premier League. Neil Warnock is an expert at promotion. He is also an expert at relegation. Warnock is simply not the guy a club wants in charge to keep them at the top.
Still, their Championship campaign was successful in that it likely prepared them best for the Premier League. Whereas Wolverhampton and Fulham focused more on attack and possession, Cardiff focused on defense and countering. That translates much easier into a relegation battle.
And Cardiff is already more or less in that battle. They have two points from their first four fixtures. The only team they managed to score against was Arsenal, which as Chelsea will know, is not the hardest thing to do when properly motivated. But Warnock still has his squad pulling on promotion euphoria. He says they will not park the bus, and based on the Arsenal match, they will not.
Nearly everything about Cardiff is old school. That includes their formation which is the old English favorite 4-4-2. No tricks or twists with it either. Two fullbacks who defend first with fast wingers who stay wide. Two big strikers to lop the ball towards. Two hard working center backs. The simplicity of it is where Cardiff found their success in the Championship.
Nothing too exciting on defense at first glance. On the second glance, it can be seen how aggressively they press and tackle. Again, that is a bit of an old school style but Cardiff is not afraid to find their shape and then send wave after wave of crunching tackles.
When Cardiff does win the ball, their first, second, and third impulse is to launch it forwards and hope they create some chaos. They have the players to run on it, but their goal is mostly to get the ball when the other team is still setting up. It has really only worked against Arsenal so far.
Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri will most need to watch out for the long aerials. Cardiff is a dominant team in the air and Chelsea simply has not been for a few years. If Warnock’s men can get the ball into a dangerous area (perhaps taking advantage of the offside trap in the process) then they can win it back and cause some panic.
But if Chelsea play like they did against Newcastle and Bournemouth, with some verticality on attack, the Blues will easily win. Cardiff’s press is easy enough to escape with good ball movement and the 4-4-2 offers plenty of spaces for a 4-3-3 to find success in. If done right, this can be a training clinic for Chelsea.
But it is always hard to tell with promoted clubs which day they will really feel themselves, especially this early in the season. The new clubs always have a giant slaying in them at some point and Chelsea needs to make sure they are not the giant on the wrong end of the sword. So long as they do not play as if they have already won (like Arsenal tried to do) they will be absolutely fine.