Chelsea vs. Cardiff predictions: Blues will let a massive win do the talking

Neil Warnock ran his mouth about Tammy Abraham, and Chelsea are likely to make him look the worse for it. Here are our predictions for the day at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea saw two opponents much like Cardiff before the international break. If Maurizio Sarri did his homework and shared the results with the players not on national team duty, they and the rest of the Blues should roll to a convincing victory.

Scott Brant: Chelsea 3 – 0 Cardiff City. Chelsea need that convincing win. That win where everyone says “they should kill Cardiff” and then they go out and destroy them, with no resistance from the weaker side. Much like Chelsea, Alvaro Morata needs that dominating performance. He started last season like gang busters, but has yet to find that in the opening weeks this time.. Heres to a much-needed Morata hat trick.

Sahil Gupta: 2 – 0. Cardiff is another team who prefers the defence-first approach, and watching Newcastle and Bournemouth defend almost successfully will only give them more hope. Everything depends on the first goal and how quickly Chelsea manages to break them down.

Sarri, however, must have done more research during the international break on how to break such resolute defences. Eden Hazard and Morata will chip in with a goal each to cap off a dominant Chelsea display.

Kevin Peacock: 3 – 1. Maurizio Sarri won’t offer up any surprises here. We know what to expect as does Neil Warnock and his Cardiff team. Warnock has said his team won’t just sit back. They’ll take the Bournemouth approach rather than that of Newcastle. The end result in those games was, eventually, the same…a Blues win. Sarri will hopefully have used the international break to integrate a touch more attacking zest to Chelsea’s keep-ball. Hazard, Morata, Antonio Rudiger to score.

Abhishek Pancholi: 5 – 0. Neil Warnock has been busy playing his little mind-games in the media, claiming he’ll not set his team up to defend and what-not. He even had the time to whine about Tammy Abraham basically saying he’d rather play in the Championship than play for Warnock’s side.

All of this will come back to bite him in the arse when Chelsea run riot against a hapless and hopeless Cardiff City. Warnock’s side will try and play a bit, before the first Chelsea goal around the 15′ knocks the wind out of their sails. Despite Cardiff waving the white flag and retreating into their own half thereafter, Chelsea will manage to put four more goals past the visitors. I expect all three of Jorginho, Hazard and Olivier Giroud to find the net.

Hugo Amaya: 2 – 0. Sarri had plenty of time to work out the problems of the team, like linking up with the striker and solid defending. This game will be his chance to put it on the field and get a solid result. Cardiff won’t pose much of a threat for Chelsea, but they will make it difficult to score goals. However, the Blues find their way through the defense twice and cruise to the next match.

Nate Hofmann: 2 – 0. At the end of the day, Cardiff is bad and Neil Warnock will probably be the first coach to be fired this season.  They may have finally found the back of the net against Arsenal, but their standout results are still their two scoreless draws, against Huddersfield and Newcastle. It’s not exactly Champagne Football up there in Wales.

To be fair, they aren’t quite as defensive as Newcastle were, but that lack of solidity isn’t compensated for by any real attacking impetus.  They’re averaging right around .97 xG per 90 minutes (Chelsea are at 1.67).  If Cardiff managed to lose whatever offensive momentum they developed against Arsenal over the international break, they might be in for a rough couple of weekends, with Chelsea, Man City, and Tottenham coming up over the next month.  Look for Chelsea to begin their suffering this weekend.  Hazard and Giroud to score.

Brendan McDonnell: 4 – 1. I said it in my season preview: Vincent Tan is an abomination and I feel just awful for the supporters of the Bluebirds. Chelsea dominates this match in every phase and toys with Cardiff City. The Blues approach similar numbers to those against Newcastle (913 Passes?!?!?) and control the game effortlessly. Danny Ward gets a goal that makes us all scratch our heads but the game is never in doubt.