Premier League: Liverpool’s Title March Heads to Wales

Premier League: Liverpool’s Title March Heads to Wales

Cardiff City vs Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League bandwagon rolls on to South Wales on Sunday for a huge clash against relegation threatened Cardiff City.

After clawing its way back into the survival race Neil Warnock will have his side set up to fight tooth and nail against Liverpool, and the Cardiff City Stadium will be at its hostile best.

These are often the games which provide the biggest tests; a team with four games left to earn another year at the top flight will never, ever roll over. So Liverpool will need to be at its best, and be patient. The way the Reds are playing they can break down any defence, but they don’t want to get into a war with Warnock’s warriors.

Talking Points

Reds ready to go all the way

This has been the best Premier League title race in a while, and Liverpool showed just how well prepared they are with a vital 2-0 win over Chelsea last weekend. The Blues’ Eden Hazard has been in scintillating form but Liverpool put on a confident, energetic and ultimately impressive performance to win the game.

Manchester City’s shock exit from the Champions League last night, to Spurs on away goals, will have left Pep Guardiola’s team more determined than ever to take a clean sweep of domestic titles. But is the momentum beginning to swing towards Merseyside?

Liverpool coasted through to the semi-final of the Champions League with a 1-4 win against Porto. Klopp’s philosophy is that his best players can keep playing as long as they are winning; and all three of his main strikers were on target. Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino all scored in Portugal, as did defensive lynchpin Virgil Van Dijk.

Wing back Andrew Robertson has had a superb season for the Reds as a key part of their defence, as well as making nine assists with his incisive runs and accurate crossing.

The Premier League 2019 betting odds still marginally favour Manchester City on the assumption they just can’t lose. But they did against Spurs over two legs…

Cardiff can still catch the falling Seagulls

The Bluebirds are still fighting for their lives, but after defeat last weekend to Burnley they face an uphill battle, but they certainly haven’t given up just yet.

Cardiff boss Neil Warnock doesn’t feel his team has been getting fair treatment from the officials recently and his comments have got him into trouble, but anyone who saw Chelsea’s offside equaliser a couple of weeks ago will have some sympathy. And midfield dynamo Harry Arter has issued a rallying call to his team-mates, saying: “We’ve faced adversity this season, on and off the pitch and we feel like if we are going to stay up, we will really have battled against everyone.”

And he adds a dose or realism: “The reason we’re in this position is that over the course of the season we haven’t been good enough at times.

Recent Premier League 2019 results haven’t been going in Cardiff’s favour, with Burnley, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and Southampton all easing away from the relegation places.

But the Bluebirds knew that Chris Hughton’s Brighton was still within reach after a poor run of form culminating in a 0-5 home reversal against Bournemouth. And on Tuesday night when the two teams clashed, Cardiff came out on top to claw their way to within two points of the sad Seagulls. Nathaniel Mendez-Laing scored a brilliant early strike to put the Bluebirds ahead before centre back Sean Morrison made the points safe as Cardiff completed a crucial double over Brighton.

With four games left Warnock knows his team must win at least another one, and probably two, to make a dramatic escape.

History

Liverpool has won all five of the Premier League meetings with Cardiff City, the last being a 4-1 victory at Anfield back in October when Sadio Mane scored twice.

While Liverpool has three strikers banging the goals in for fun; Cardiff’s top scorer is Victor Camarasa with five; and Mendez-Laing’s cracker on the South coast was only his second of the season.

Cardiff needs more wins, but may have to wait…Liverpool hasn’t lost in its last 17 games.

Betting Tip

Cardiff City Asian Handicap +2.00 @ 1.90

Cardiff is at 15.00 to win with SBOBET with Liverpool at 1.21 and the draw at 5.60; so all reason points to an away win.

Warnock is a wily old bird though, and when Cardiff faced Manchester City recently he set his team up to concede as few goals as possible and they went down 2-0. I am sure this game will follow a similar pattern but wouldn’t rule out a goal for the battling Bluebirds.

Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.

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