Cardiff v Newcastle preview: Neil Warnock and Rafa Benitez face off

Neil Warnock and Rafa Benitez renew their rivalry live on Sky Sports on Saturday as Cardiff face Newcastle in the Premier League.

Warnock was unhappy with Benitez in 2007 when he fielded a second-string Liverpool side in a 1-0 defeat to Fulham.

The result proved costly for Warnock's Sheffield United as they were relegated and Fulham stayed up on the final day of the season.

Warnock v Benitez: How rivalry started

Warnock said at the time that he will "never forgive Benitez", but the relationship seems to have thawed since, with Warnock talking about the Newcastle manager in positive terms ahead of their meeting this weekend.

"You've only got to look at what the fans are saying and what all the pundits are saying, the one person Newcastle can't afford to lose is Rafa, they could get away with [losing] any player," said the Cardiff boss.

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"His commitment to Newcastle has been fantastic and he's in his last year now so it'll be interesting to see how that develops because I think he'll be targeted worldwide really."

Both teams will be looking to get off the mark for the season on Saturday after losing their opening games.

Cardiff were beaten 2-0 at Bournemouth while Newcastle lost at home to Tottenham. Despite defeat, Warnock said his newly-promoted side have "nothing to be afraid of" in the Premier League.

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"We had to improve the team from last week and we can do that with players to come in," he said. "The next couple of games will show us more, but we were in the game until the end at Bournemouth and despite the critics, I was quite pleased with it really. We had to gamble at the death.

"I think we're capable of getting results against anyone at home and then pinch one or two away."

Team news

New signing Harry Arter is expected to make his Cardiff bow after being ineligible for last weekend's opener against his parent club, Bournemouth.

Kenneth Zohore (groin) faces a late fitness test after missing the 2-0 defeat but Aron Gunnarsson (knee) is a definite absentee.

Newcastle could hand full debuts to a host of their summer signings in south Wales.

Forwards Salomon Rondon and Yoshinori Muto came off the bench in defeat to Tottenham, while fellow new recruits Fabian Schar, Ki Sung-yueng and Federico Fernandez are all yet to feature.

DeAndre Yedlin will miss out after suffering a minor knee injury against former club Spurs, with Florian Lejeune's knee surgery keeping him sidelined for much longer.

Opta stats

• Cardiff City have lost each of their last 10 league meetings with Newcastle, their longest ever losing run against a single opponent in league history.
• Newcastle's current run of 10 successive league wins against Cardiff is their longest winning run against a single opponent in league history.
• Cardiff's last league victory against Newcastle was back in February 1981 in the old second division, winning 1-0 thanks to a Peter Kitchen strike. However, they have beaten Newcastle as recently as 2014, winning 2-1 at St James' Park in an FA Cup match.
• Cardiff have won eight of their 10 home league games so far in 2018 (D1 L1), though these were all in the Championship last season.
• Newcastle have lost their last three away league games - they've never lost four in a row on the road under current manager Rafael Benitez.
• In all competitions, Cardiff manager Neil Warnock is winless in his last nine matches against Newcastle (W0 D2 L7), since a 1-0 win as Sheffield United boss in November 2006.
• Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez has never lost against Neil Warnock in five previous meetings in all competitions, winning each of the last four in a row since 1-1 draw between Sheffield United and Liverpool on the opening day of the 2006-07 Premier League season.

Merson's prediction

This is a massive football match, even so early in the season. Cardiff failed to score at Bournemouth, who let in goals for fun, but I think this will be a hard game for Newcastle.

Newcastle lost at home to Tottenham and they need to make sure they don't lose this one, too.

PAUL PREDICTS: 1-1 (9/2 with Sky Bet)

Betting

Cardiff are Sky Bet's 21/10 outsiders for Saturday's early kick-off, live on Sky Sports Premier League, while the draw is priced up at the same 21/10 chance and the Magpies are slight favourites to pick up the three points at 7/5. Bobby Reid is the favourite to open the scoring at 5/1, while Joselu and Salomon Rondon are considered Newcastle's main threats at 13/2 apiece.

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