Cardiff vs Newcastle Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Cardiff’s return to the Premier League went as many expected it to last weekend as they floundered about at the Vitality Stadium, showing next to no attacking ambition and subsequently losing 2-0 to Bournemouth. It was by no means unexpected, but it will still have been disappointing for the travelling support.

The Bluebirds’ away fans could well be in for a very long and torturous season, but the fact remains that any challenge for top flight survival is likely to be built around their home form. Saturday is their first chance to show the rest of the Premier League how formidable they can be at the Cardiff City Stadium, and in Newcastle they have some relatively beatable opponents.

Even in the Championship, Cardiff struggled to get together any sort of momentum away from home, winning just 47% of their trips away all season. At home, however, it was a completely different story. They picked up 52 points from their 23 home games, 2nd only to Wolves’ 53 point haul. In 2018 they have won eight of their last ten competitive games there, and only failed to score in five of their league games there last season.

This will have Newcastle rightly worried about their trip. They, like Cardiff, already started the season with a loss as they missed out on the opportunity to take advantage of a fatigued Tottenham side at St James Park last weekend. They responded well to going a goal down, but as the game wore on it was the men in black and white that looked like they had been through the World Cup.

Eventually The Magpies came out 2-1 losers, and will rue Kenedy’s glorious one-on-one chance against Hugo Lloris. A 2-1 loss to Spurs isn’t the end of the world, but should they lose at Cardiff on Saturday, it would start to pile some early pressure onto the players and manager.

To make matters worse, Newcastle’s away form isn’t anything to be proud of. They won just four of their 19 trips away in the Premier League last season, drawing four and losing the remaining 11.

The silver lining is that they do tend to do well in front of goal against the lesser teams. In fact, Newcastle scored in all but two of their trips away to the bottom half sides last season, and those two failures came right at the start of the season against Brighton and Huddersfield. However, they did concede in all but two of their away games in the league last season.

We can’t see Newcastle keeping a clean sheet against a Cardiff side who have scored in eight of their ten home league games this year, but the visitors should be able to find the net themselves. Both teams to score looks a great option here, as does a 1-1 stalemate as both teams settle for their first point of the season.