Cardiff v Aston Villa preview
Friday 11 August 2017 12:42, UK
Cardiff have no new injury concerns for the Sky Bet Championship visit of Aston Villa.
So Bluebirds boss Neil Warnock is likely to revert to the starting line-up which claimed an opening day league win at Burton.
Warnock made eight changes for the Carabao Cup clash against Portsmouth in midweek, and Neil Etheridge, Lee Peltier, Sol Bamba and Kenneth Zohore will be among those returning. Kadeem Harris (ankle), Callum Paterson (knee), Lee Camp (knee) and Rhys Healey (cruciate) remain out.
Villa boss Steve Bruce is likely to turn to his big guns once again for the game. Bruce made nine changes for Wednesday's Carabao Cup victory at Colchester, resting Sam Johnstone, Neil Taylor, John Terry, Alan Hutton, Ahmed Elmohamady, Glenn Whelan, Leandro Bacuna, Henri Lansbury and Gabriel Agbonlahor from the side which drew 1-1 with Hull at the weekend.
Loan signing Josh Onomah, who appeared as a second-half substitute against the Tigers, was handed a first start and will hope he did enough to warrant another in south Wales, while there was a full debut for experienced defender Christopher Samba. However, defender Jordan Amavi has joined Marseille on loan with a view to completing a permanent move and Bacuna could soon follow him through the Villa Park exit door.
Opta stats
Cardiff have lost just two of their last 13 home league games against Villa (W8 D3), keeping clean sheets on eight occasions including each of the last two.
Aston Villa have won seven of the last 10 league encounters with the Bluebirds (D1 L2), although they lost on their last visit to Cardiff.
Steve Bruce has won nine of his 11 previous managerial meetings with Neil Warnock (D1 L1), but his only defeat in those 11 games came in the most recent game in January, with Villa losing 1-0 to Cardiff.
Kenneth Zohore has scored 12 Championship goals in 2017 - only Chris Wood (17), Yann Kermorgant and Lasse Vibe (both 13) have scored more.
Prutton's prediction
Villa could have put Hull to bed at half-time last week but a few missed chances cost them, and it looks like they missed Jonathan Kodjia a bit. They got their first win in midweek but Cardiff will be a tough nut to crack.
Neil Warnock's side are many people's dark horses to be sniffing around the top six. He'll be saying they're underdogs but will know his side can give Villa a good game at home and I fancy them to nick a win.
Prutton predicts: 1-0 (11/2 with Sky Bet)
