Cardiff City 3 – 2 Manchester City: Gunnarsson and Medel help pull off a huge shock

What a difference a week can make. Following on from a lacklustre 2-0 defeat at Upton Park on the opening weekend, Cardiff City bounced back with one of the great Premier League upsets, beating Manchester City 3-2 in front of a record home attendance.

Malky Mackay set out with a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Kim Bo-Kyung and Fraizer Campbell dropping deep into midfield to act as a defensive barrier high up the pitch. Campbell may have been the man to make the headlines, but a lot of credit must go to Aron Gunnarsson and record signing Gary Medel – who went a long way to justifying his £11m price tag.

Double-pivot

The growing trend of the 4-2-3-1 formation has helped create what has arguably become the most important position on the field – the ‘double-pivot’ (think Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira). The “2” aspect of the defensive looking formation, act as both an additional barrier to break-up play, but also help to start attacks from deep.

As can be seen from the player diagrams (below), Gunnarsson and Medel are already beginning to form a partnership in the Cardiff midfield – when one player surges forward, the other stays deep.

Medel has instantly become somewhat of a fan favourite at the Cardiff City Stadium thanks to his passion and ability to seemingly stop any attacks that come towards his sides goal. With three successful tackles, four interceptions, two defensive clearances and 28 passes, the Chilean international perfectly summed-up his all-round game yesterday afternoon, showing why Mackay was right to break the bank to get his man.

Gunnarsson meanwhile – who is still getting up to match fitness after missing a large chunk of pre-season due to a shoulder injury picked up on international duty – got Cardiff off the mark with his goal on the hour mark, following in on Fraizer Campbell’s shot to tap home.

Medal highlighted just why he was rated so highly at previous clubs

The 24-year-old, who was the Bluebirds second top-scorer last season with eight goals, surged forward before finding the back of the net from close range. This is something which was seriously lacking during the clash at Upton Park, with Campbell simply stood alone isolated up-front. With Gunnarsson and Medel beginning to form a partnership, expect to see a lot more of this support from deep – these talented players are not in the team to simply defend, but to also attack; something we will see more of as the season develops.

Defensive display 

There is a reason why Cardiff were such massive underdogs coming into this game: Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo, Jesus Navas… you get the point. Manchester City’s starting XI cost a combined total of £210m – some £186m more than the squad the home side had started with.

Despite this, Ben Turner and Steven Caulker put in a resounding defensive display which, as Gary Neville put it “perfectly sums up how to stop the best teams.” It would be unfair to say Cardiff parked the bus – a phrase which is seemingly used whenever a team puts in a strong defensive display – they simply didn’t allow the away side any time to breathe.

Though David Silva occasionally found space in an advanced midfield position, Cardiff, as can be seen in the defensive dashboard below, were simply brilliant when it came to protecting their goal. With Navas on the wing, Manchester City now have a true out-and-out winger, and as can be seen, they managed to get in plenty of crosses, but Turner and Caulker achieved a 100% defensive header rate, while 16 out of 19 tackles were successful. Turner did occasionally get pulled out of defence by Aguero, though overall Turner justified his inclusion over last season’s player of the year Mark Hudson.

Taking chances

It goes without saying that in the Premier League, you simply have to take your chances when they come. It looked as though it was going to be a frustrating afternoon for Campbell after the first-half upon failing to convert two one-on-one’s – though in Campbell’s defence, they were not exactly simple chances.

Cardiff played the perfect game in terms of defensive tactics

Despite playing some nice football in patches, Cardiff’s second and third goals came from set-piece deliveries – the first from arguably the finest crosser of a ball in the division, Peter Whittingham, and the second from an unlikely source – Don Cowie.

A lot can be said of the Manchester City defending, with Vincent Kompany clearly a huge loss at the back. Though Campbell deserves a lot of credit for getting his head (and shoulders) on both corners to beat England’s number one goalkeeper, Joe Hart.

Coming into the season Kim Bo-Kyung was tipped by many City supporters to shine in the Premier League. Strong performances at the end of the last campaign, followed by a strong pre-season, the South Korean showed just why there was so much rumoured interest in him from European heavyweights Dortmund just two summers ago.

While Whittingham often found himself in a central position, Bellamy stayed tight to the touchline leaving Bo-Kyung to mark Fernandinho who would drop deep to collect the ball. Mackay could be heard telling both Bo-Kyung and Campbell to “stick to your man”, which both did throughout.

With Andreas Cornelius slowly building up match fitness, it is hard to see where the Dane will fit into Mackay’s plans. With this 4-4-1-1 formation likely to be used again regularly this season against the so called ‘big boys’ of the division, Cornelius is likely to get his chance when Mackay lines up with two strikers in a more attack minded formation in games where the Bluebirds will be expecting nothing less than three points.

Conclusion

Beating Manchester City in the club’s first home game back in the top tier for half a century is obviously an incredible result, but Mackay will be the first to keep expectation levels low. Cardiff will simply by looking to avoid relegation this season, but as they showed so well against one of the favourites for the title, they can most certainly push on and establish themselves at this level.

Width is still needed in the side, with Craig’s Noone and Conway both relishing their chance to show what they can do – though they are likely to be used scarcely this season, if at all. There is still also a lot of doubt over the right-back berth, with Matt Connolly, a player with experience at this level, seemingly becoming Mackay’s first choice to take up that position. John Brayford will be hoping the get his chance to shine, though much like Hudson, he will have to watch on for a little while longer.

Mackay put this victory down to a “hard working, disciplined team performance” – if the Bluebirds are to survive this season, we can expect more of the same.