Sunday’s Premier League game between Cardiff and Burnley featured two of teams who have struggled to amass points in the early stages of the top-flight campaign.
The game at the Cardiff City Stadium ended with the visitors recording a 2-1 courtesy of goals from Johan Berg Gudmundsson and Sam Vokes, either side of a strike from Josh Murphy.
It may only be early in the season, with seven league games gone. However, Cardiff look like they could be big trouble this season. Sunday’s defeat was the Bluebirds fourth consecutive top-flight loss.
Always likely to struggle in the top-flight
Cardiff produced a decent display against Burnley. However, the Welsh side just did not have the quality to take anything from the game. The Bluebirds surprised many people by earning promotion last season from the Championship.
It was always going to be difficult for boss Neil Warnock to bring in enough quality in the summer to stave off relegation. There seemed to be lots of effort and perspiration, but a terrible lack of quality.
The Bluebirds were never likely to spend a fortune recruiting players, as to be fair they did not in their last very brief stint in the top-flight. The lack of heavy investment meant City starting the campaign with the players that helped the team to promotion, plus a few summer additions. It was never going to be enough, so their current league position is not a major surprise to anybody really.
Burnley showed their experience
In reality, games like Sunday’s are the ones they need to win. The Clarets had won just one game all season heading to the Welsh capital and were just above the Bluebirds in the table.
The fact that the Clarets secured their first back-to-back wins since April shows you the kind of form that the team from Lancashire have been in of late.
However, Sean Dyche’s team are no Premier League novices and it showed in this clash. There had been worries that this could be a tough campaign for the visitors after their terrible start to the campaign.
Those worries now seem to have dissipated, as the Clarets moved up to 12th place in the Premier League table.
Favourites to suffer relegation
Veteran Cardiff boss Neil Warnock recently joked that he likes the Championship better than the Premier League, which was probably a reference to the fact that he has spent much of his managerial career in the second tier of English football.
The former QPR boss has struggled to make a mark in the English top-flight. With Cardiff the favourites to suffer relegation, Warnock may be back in his favoured league. That is of course if he manages to avoid the sack for the rest of the campaign.
It may be early, but at the moment there does not seem to be three worse teams than Cardiff in the Premier League this season. If the Bluebirds suffer relegation then it will not for the lack of effort, but more for the lack of players capable of playing in the top-flight.
Is it a foregone conclusion that Cardiff will suffer relegation this season?
