Cardiff vs Preston Prediction

Two very different recent runs

Across their last 20 matches in all competitions, Cardiff have won 8, drawn 5 and lost 7, scoring 47 and conceding 36. There's been goals at both ends, including a 5-1 win over Watford and a heavy 6-0 defeat to Midtjylland in a friendly, so the pattern is more feast-or-famine than consistent.

Cardiff: 20 completed matches; Preston: 20 completed matches.

Cardiff

20 matches

Win

40% 8 / 20

Draw

25% 5 / 20

Loss

35% 7 / 20

Scored

47

Conceded

36

Difference

+11

Preston

20 matches

Win

10% 2 / 20

Draw

15% 3 / 20

Loss

75% 15 / 20

Scored

19

Conceded

42

Difference

-23

Preston's sample over the same number of games is much bleaker. Just 2 wins from 20, with 15 losses and only 19 goals scored against 42 conceded. That's a team who have found it hard going in pretty much every fixture.

Preston's recent output has been well below Cardiff's, at least across this sample of matches.

Comparative Team Statistics: Cardiff vs Preston

A fixture with a long, tight history

These two have met plenty of times down the years, and a lot of those games have been close. There's a string of 0-0s and 1-0s scattered through the record, alongside some bigger scorelines either way.

The two most recent meetings before last season went to Cardiff, both 2-0, before last April's game finished 2-2. It's a long history though, stretching back over a decade, so it says more about the fixture's unpredictability than about either team's current form.

Both sides are deep in the bottom half

Cardiff currently sit 19th with 11 points from 11 games, having won twice and drawn five times. Preston are down in 24th on just 4 points from the same number of matches, with only a single win.

Neither side is pulling away from trouble, but the points gap between them right now is significant.

Players to keep an eye on

Cardiff's J. Moylan has 3 goals in 8 matches, matching Preston's C. Lang over the same number of appearances, so both sides have an attacking player in decent recent scoring form.

Cardiff:

Best scorers:

J. Moylan - 3

Best assist providers:

O. Tanner - 2

Penalty cards:

A. Robertson x 4

O. Tanner x 3

Preston:

Best scorers:

C. Lang - 3

Penalty cards:

H. Clarke x 4

J. Thompson x 3

On discipline, Cardiff's A. Robertson and Preston's H. Clarke have each picked up 4 yellow cards in their last 8 and 7 matches respectively, which is worth noting without reading too much into it ahead of a fixture that's still a month away.

How the picture might shape up

On paper, Cardiff's firmer recent form and position above Preston in the table give them the edge. They've scored more freely and lost fewer games across their last 20 outings.

But Preston have shown in this fixture before that they can be competitive regardless of league form, and Cardiff's own defensive record this season, 17 conceded in 11 games, isn't exactly watertight. With kickoff still some weeks away, team news and fresh form between now and then could easily shift things.