Cardiff vs Burnley Prediction: Clean sheet record in sight

Burnley suffered a damaging loss at the hands of local rivals Preston North End over the weekend, a result that saw them dumped out of the FA Cup in the fifth round. But now Scott Parker’s men must turn their attention back to their promotion push in the Championship. 

They travel to Cardiff City (19:45, Sky Sports+), needing three points to close the gap on Sheffield United. Below you can find my Cardiff vs Burnley predictions featuring team news and betting tips.

Team News

Cardiff’s big miss at the back is Dimitrios Goutas, and he remains suspended following his red card against Plymouth, so Perry Ng could play in the centre again with Will Fish. Andy Rinomhota will play at right-back, while Callum O’Dowda was superb in the 1-0 win over Hull and will start again here on the left. 

Jak Alnwick and Jesper Daland remain out, while David Turnbull is on his way back from injury but wont be back in time for this one. That means Sivert Mannsverk should play alongside Calum Chambers in the middle, with the former Arsenal man flourishing in his new midfield berth. Ollie Tanner will miss this fixture, so Chris Willock and Cian Ashford are likely to support Yousef Salech up top. 

Some positive news from the injury front for Burnley came in the form of Aaron Ramsey as the midfielder returned to training following an extended spell out with an ACL injury. He won’t feature here, but is on his way back, while Nathan Redmond and Mike Tresor also remain out. 

We can expect Parker to reverse the nine changes he made for the cup game. Marcus Edwards has been terrific since arriving in January so expect him to start on the right, with Jaidon Anthony and Zian Flemming making up the rest of the front three. Hannibal Mejbri should provide some attacking thrust from midfield, while the perfect defensive duo of CJ-Egan Riley and Maxime Esteve will start in front of James Trafford. 

Cardiff vs Burnley Odds

Cardiff are priced at 16/5 to win this fixture, and they’ve won seven of their 17 home fixtures so far this term. Unsurprisingly, Burnley are the favourites to win this one at 19/20, given they’ve picked up 33 points on the road so far - second only to Sheffield United. That gives the Clarets and implied win probability of 51% heading to Wales. 

In terms of goals, over 2.5 can be backed at 6/4 while BTTS is 6/5, but Burnley rank bottom of the table for BTTS success this term at just 21 per cent so the unders may be the way to go. If you fancy a first goalscorer, Flemming leads the way at 11/2, with Lyle Foster priced at 6/1. 

Burnley to keep a clean sheet @ 23/20

Oh yes, we are back again. I’ve backed this selection with an unprecedented amount of success over the last month or so, and I’m not going to stop here. Watching Burnley play isn’t entertaining, but boy is it profitable. Parker’s team are on the most ridiculous run of clean sheets in the league, now up to 12 on the bounce, and when Trafford, Esteve and Egan-Riley are all on the pitch, they just don’t concede.

The record for English football currently stands at 14 games without conceding, set by Edwin van der Sar and Manchester United in that fantastic 2007/08 season that saw them crowned European champions. Burnley may not have Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, but they can keep teams at bay with relative ease. 

Each defensive action is celebrated like a goal, and there’s a real desire to keep this run going from the entire team. They are a level above Cardiff and they should come out with all three points and a 13th clean sheet on the bounce.

Football Odds

Marcus Edwards to score first @ 7/1

He’s just absolutely class isn’t he? He’d performed extremely well for Sporting CP over in Portugal, including against some of the big boys in Europe in recent years, but found game time hard to come by this season. As a result, Burnley have picked him up on loan and he’s already shown his class. 

He made his first start against Sheffield Wednesday and opened the scoring, having impressed off the bench in two prior appearances. Given Burnley don’t tend to tear teams apart (apart from the Owls), they don’t particularly have a goalscoring number nine. That leaves the door open for somebody like Edwards to come in and score a lot of goals. We are getting great value on him to find the net first tonight. 

Offers

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