Swansea City vs Cardiff City Prediction: Bluebirds have no points

Swansea City will extend a warm welcome to Cardiff City at the Swansea.com Stadium in the third game week of the English Championship. Bluebirds have no points in the championship. Who will be victorious after 90 minutes?

Luke Williams has made a mixed start to his first full season in charge of Swansea, having gained three points out of a possible six in the opening Championship fixtures. The Swans launched their campaign with a tough trip to the Riverside Stadium, where a 25th-minute penalty from Middlesbrough's Emmanuel Latte Lath was enough to secure a narrow victory for Michael Carrick's men.

After that loss, Swansea did well to bounce back with back-to-back home victories. They first easily defeated League Two side Gillingham in the EFL Cup to get some confidence under their belts. Building on that momentum, Swansea turned in a fine performance in the Championship last week, overcoming a managerless Preston North End 3-0. Matt Grimes, Azeem Abdulai, and Zan Vipotnik struck the right notes to ensure the win, giving a much-needed shot in the arm to the spirits at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Vigouroux, Key, Cabango, Darling, Tymon, Franco, Grimes, Eom, Cooper, Pereira and Cullen

Cardiff City have made a poor start to their 2024-25 Championship campaign and have suffered back-to-back defeats, conceding seven goals in the process. The result puts immediate pressure on head coach Erol Bulut, who signed a new deal with the club this summer but watched his side crash to defeat without gaining any points. The Bluebirds kicked off their campaign at home to rejuvenated Sunderland on 10 August. The visitors made sure of an opening day win for new boss Regis Le Bris, as captain Luke O'Nien and Jack Clarke, who has been of interest to Premier League clubs, struck to seal a 2-0 victory. Moments of gloom were briefly lifted off Cardiff with a 2-1 EFL Cup win over League One's Bristol Rovers on 13 August, thanks to goals from Mark McGuinness and Rubin Colwill. That brief positivity was dampened by McGuinness's subsequent move to Luton Town. Reacting to losing McGuinness, Cardiff spent £3.5 million to bring on board Norwegian defender Jesper Daland from Cercle Brugge, who they hope will help shore up their defense as they try to rejuvenate their campaign.

Horvath, Ng, Daland, Goutas, O'Dowda, Siopis, Colwill, Kanga, Ramsey, Willock, and Meite

Influential goalkeeper Andy Fisher of Swansea will sit this one out due to a groin injury, with Lawrence Vigouroux coming into the starting XI. For the visitors, Joe Allen misses the game with an injury to his toe, while Cardiff is sweating over the fitness of Ryotaro Tsunoda, who is returning from a muscle injury. Kion Etete and Isaak Davies miss out for Cardiff.

Even though local derbies are notoriously unpredictable, Swansea's strong start to the season could prove to be the difference between them and Cardiff, who have not had a good Championship campaign so far. Cardiff is unlikely to win at Swansea's home ground this weekend.