PREMIER LEAGUE QUESTION: CARDIFF CITY V FULHAM

Which defence can hold out? (Cardiff v Fulham, Saturday 3pm)

It has been six years since a side has conceded more goals in their first eight games of a Premier League season than Fulham have done. Their 5-1 defeat to Arsenal before the international break took their tally to 21 conceded, while, ahead of their trip to Cardiff, they have also failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 22 Premier League away games.

Slavisa Jokanovic's Fulham have not had the start they would have hoped for after spending around £100m in the summer
Manager Slavisa Jokanovic acknowledged after the loss to Arsenal that defensively Fulham have not been good enough, and that will surely have been the main point of focus in training during the last two weeks.

The stats show that Cardiff have not fared much better defensively, but 12 of the 17 goals they have let in were against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. Having already played four of last season's top six, Cardiff now start a more favourable run of fixtures, and whoever can keep it tight at the back might prevail in this crucial contest between two newly-promoted teams.

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we win.
jokanovic gets sacked
and the bloke from the star wars bar buys griffin park...perfect weekend.

Which defence can hold out? (Cardiff v Fulham, Saturday 3pm)

It has been six years since a side has conceded more goals in their first eight games of a Premier League season than Fulham have done. Their 5-1 defeat to Arsenal before the international break took their tally to 21 conceded, while, ahead of their trip to Cardiff, they have also failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 22 Premier League away games.

Slavisa Jokanovic's Fulham have not had the start they would have hoped for after spending around £100m in the summer
Manager Slavisa Jokanovic acknowledged after the loss to Arsenal that defensively Fulham have not been good enough, and that will surely have been the main point of focus in training during the last two weeks.

The stats show that Cardiff have not fared much better defensively, but 12 of the 17 goals they have let in were against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. Having already played four of last season's top six, Cardiff now start a more favourable run of fixtures, and whoever can keep it tight at the back might prevail in this crucial contest between two newly-promoted teams.

Some very good and well thought out points there.
I might add that Fulham are far more likely than we are to crumble. They've spent all this money and it hasn't worked to obtain the instant success which many here have frequently demanded and the next step in these circumstances is the equally destructive one of sacking the manager and in the process destroying team morale then trying to start again in the middle of a season.
This was exactly the outcome I expected from Fulhams shenanigans in the transfer market, although I must admit I thought that the same would happen at Wolves and so far they've proved me wrong. All three promoted teams are in a battle to find the right mark at this standard, which was always going to be the case, and we'll see over time how the differing strategies to achieve that work out.
I will say though, that if you rely entirely upon buying players rather than preserving and improving the effectiveness of what you're already doing, and that doesn't work, I'm not sure what you do next.

Let's be real - we are 8 games in and no win, if we fail to pick up a win here it's hard to see where we will ever get one.

Let's be real - we are 8 games in and no win, if we fail to pick up a win here it's hard to see where we will ever get one.

Maybe from the games after it??

Let's be real - we are 8 games in and no win, if we fail to pick up a win here it's hard to see where we will ever get one.

There are far too many variables in any football match for that to make sense. One of them is that the same team may well be playing better or worse at different times within a season.