Neil Warnock insists his Bluebirds will not be ‘parking the bus’ and are intent on beating Arsenal at Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday (1.30pm).
Manager Warnock looks likely to give livewire Danny Ward the nod to start against the Gunners, while he will surely look to Josh Murphy and Bobby Reid to add another dimension in attack.
Arsenal start hot favourites to win, but manager Unai Emery and his team surely won’t relish playing in front of more than 30,000 home fans.
After all, they have lost eight of their last nine away matches and pressure will start to build on former Cardiff City player Aaron Ramsey and his team-mates.
Cardiff have yet to score a Premier League goal, but they have been desperately close and it stands to reason that sequence will end over the next three games.
Only Premier leaders have a better defensive record that Warnock’s warriors, who have conceded only two goals, but he says: “I don’t want 0-0s. We need to create chances and oohs and aahs for our fans. Even if it means losing, it wouldn’t bother me.
“At my age I don’t want to be bored watching my team. As long as they give it their all, that’s what I want.
“It’s down to me a bit more than the players. I have got to come up with solutions. What we could get away with in the Championship, we can’t get away with in the Premier League.
“You have to change all the time as a manager. We’re slightly different from the other two promoted clubs and don’t have the money they had.
“I would have loved to bring in a striker during the transfer window, but I’m not going to bemoan it.
“I want to try and enjoy the games against the big clubs and my tactics have to be the same whether we win or lose – and that means giving us a chance to score goals.
“Everybody expects us to lose the next three games, but I want to enjoy it.
“It will be so difficult for us in the next few weeks, but we have a great bunch, a great set of fans.
“I must come up with a recipe to give our fans something to cheer about.
“We must get the crowd on their feet. We’ve got to take the Premier League onboard and enjoy it.
“We can cope with the Premier League, we just need to create more scoring opportunities.”
Everything points to an Arsenal victory, but five years ago Manchester City came to South Wales for a Premier match and were beaten 3-2.
Yes, the Bluebirds need a little luck near goal, but they are capable of causing a surprise. Arsenal have allowed their opponents more shots on target – 24 – than any other side in the opening three rounds of Premier League matches.
It’s almost 60 years – and 13 matches – since Cardiff last defeated the Gunners in any competition. Since City completed a double over the Londoners – 3-2 at Highbury, 1-0 at Ninian Park – in 1960-61 there have been five draws and eight Arsenal wins.
Emery’s team are far from unbeatable and have been beaten in two of their three matches so far. If goalkeeper Neil Etheridge could keep a third successive clean sheet it would be the first time since 1957 Cardiff have achieved that feat in the top flight.
Graham Vearncombe was the goalkeeper who kept Aston Villa, Luton Town and Everton out during 1956-57, a season in which Arsenal drew 0-0 at Ninian Park.
Cardiff’s Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has been ruled out for three months with a knee injury, while Junior Hoilett has had a groin strain and faces a fitness test, while Aron Gunnarsson is again ruled out.
Icelandic captain Gunnarsson is back in training, but won’t be available for his country during the international break.
Mesut Ozil sat out Arsenal’s last match through illness, according to the club, but he has trained this week and is available to play.
Maybe, just maybe, the key facts for Sunday are that the Bluebirds have lost once at home in 2018, while, in contrast, the Gunners have won once away over the course of the calendar year.
