Pep Guardiola facing Neil Warnock is the biggest culture clash ever seen in the Premier League as champions Manchester City look to get back to winning ways against Cardiff
Man City, the princes of possession football, visit Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds, who’d have made the old Wimbledon Crazy Gang look like a fine arts class on a field trip at a sculpture park
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IT will be just about the biggest culture clash ever seen in a Premier League fixture.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, the princes of possession football, visit Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City, who’d have made the old Wimbledon Crazy Gang look like a fine arts class on a field trip at a sculpture park.
When they met in the FA Cup back in January, the spectacle was often so violent that Quentin Tarantino tried to buy up the film rights.
One blood-curdling challenge from Joe Bennett on Leroy Sane had Guardiola seething.
Even the German FA trolled Cardiff on social media to remind them they had a World Cup to go to in the summer and begged ‘please don’t hurt our players’.
The wonderful postscript being that Joachim Low didn’t select a fully-fit Sane and saw the Germans crash out in the group stage.
But after escaping with a yellow for that studs-up challenge, Bennett was finally sent off for a second booking in injury-time.
Guardiola, though, was already brimming with a perfectly reasonable sense of injustice.
“Please protect the players,” begged the Etihad’s chief choreographer, “the players are the artists and you have to take care of them. Did I fear serious injuries? Of course.”
“He’s is in England,” responded Warnock (who was in Wales).
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“What do you expect? I suppose when you’re like that you want everything to be nice and pretty but you don’t get that in England (Wales). You get different challenges.”
At that point Guardiola’s men were being touted for a quadruple – one of those footballing illusions which comes around most winters but in hindsight ends up sounding like a unicorn hunt. League One Wigan would defeat City in the following round.
Cardiff secured automatic promotion through their extreme brand of long-ball football — thrilling in its own way.
A throwback which felt like a living history show.
And although they remain remarkably direct for a top-flight team, Cardiff have bought in some attacking quality.
While they will struggle to enjoy more than 20 per cent possession against the champions, they are unlikely to park the bus in the classic sense.
Arsenal were unsettled at times before earning a 3-2 win at Cardiff earlier this month and Warnock’s men actually took the lead at Chelsea last weekend.
While every football lover, including Warnock, appreciates the beauty of Guardiola’s team, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Cardiff’s rugged centre-half Sean Morrison — a man you can imagine literally skinning cats — has already provided two Premier League assists this season.
More than any of Guardiola’s dreamy midfield.
And the champions have not been on the same bravura form as last season.
Their midweek Champions League defeat by Lyon did not come completely out of the blue after some less-than-convincing recent performances.
Guardiola misses Kevin De Bruyne; he is struggling to integrate record signing Riyad Mahrez and Sane has been suffering the after-effects of his World Cup axing, although he did brighten things up a second-half sub and created his team’s goal in the 2-1 defeat on Tuesday.
Should Cardiff get at their swanky visitors and enjoy some early success, this might not be quite the away-win banker you’d imagine.
If Warnock has one major strength from decades of managerial experience, it is his supreme ability to get under the skin of opponents.
Guardiola will praise a lesser team to high heaven if they open up and allow his men to play — a legs-akimbo Fulham got it last week, as have Bournemouth in the past.
But Cardiff will not be that kind of push-over. If a clash of styles makes for a compelling boxing fight, then this could be the footballing equivalent.
And, quite possibly, with just as much blood...
EVEN when Tottenham are winning, Mauricio Pochettino’s players will tell you they work far harder in training than any of their Premier League rivals.
When results are good, their supreme fitness levels are considered a strength. When they’re losing, it’s naturally because they’re knackered.
Yes the fact that so many Spurs players reached the semi-finals of the World Cup is a contributory factor to their three straight defeats — the worst run of Pochettino’s reign.
And, yes, Harry Kane has not been physically right since returning from his last injury in early April — even winning the Golden Boot in Russia on a low tank of petrol.
But the chief problem for Spurs has been cutting costs on recruitment — most significantly in goal and up front, the two areas where you simply can’t get away with under-investment.
When Hugo Lloris got injured and Kane flaked out, Spurs have been found out because Michel Vorm and Fernando Llorente are simply not good enough understudies.
Brighton boss Chris Hughton — who won three major trophies in four seasons as a Spurs player back in the days when Spurs won major trophies — is capable of making things even worse for Pochettino at the Amex tomorrow teatime.
AFTER three straight away wins, Manchester United finally return to the scene of their 3-0 defeat by Tottenham with spirits restored, not least those of Jose Mourinho.
But Wolves — whose rise has been masterminded by Mourinho’s super-agent chum Jorge Mendes — will be stiff opposition for that rarest of fixtures, a 3pm Saturday kick-off at Old Trafford.
The Portuguese influence at Wolves is verging on dominance, and many wonder whether Molineux will end up being Mourinho’s next stop.
YES it was sad that Ruben Loftus-Cheek couldn’t get any game time for Chelsea against PAOK Salonika in the Europa League — let alone promising teenagers like Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ethan Ampadu.
Yet for Maurizio Sarri and most continentals, there is no such thing as ‘only the Europa League’. It is a major trophy to be fully respected.
Which still feels quite a refreshing attitude in itself over here.
ARSENAL have won four in a row and the smart money will be on them making it five out of five against Everton on Sunday.
Yet after shipping two late goals in the 4-2 victory over Ukraine’s Europa League rookies Vorskla Poltava, they have still to keep a clean sheet under Unai Emery - conceding a hefty 11 goals in six matches.
While the back four remain questionable and the goalkeeping uncertainty won’t go away in a hurry, the key to Arsenal tightening things up is Lucas Torreira.
The Uruguayan holding midfielder made his first start on Thursday and was withdrawn 35 minutes out, with the Gunners 3-0 up, to take up what must surely become his regular starting place against Everton.
DEJAN LOVREN, who takes on his former club Southampton at Anfield tomorrow, is facing the threat of a jail sentence after being charged with perjury in his native Croatia.
His claim about being ‘one of the best defenders in the world’ was a bit outlandish but criminal charges seem a bit harsh.
