Preston North End v Cardiff City
Championship | Deepdale
Saturday, 25 November 2023 @ 3.00pm
Cardiff City travel to Preston North End on Saturday in the Championship.
The visitors come into the game on the back of a defeat in their last match, having lost to Norwich City 3-2 at home, with goals from Callum Robinson and Josh Bowler.
The Lilywhites, meanwhile, won their last match, 2-1 against Blackburn Rovers, with their goals scored by Liam Lindsay and Alan Browne.
In Jak Alnwick, Cardiff can rely on one of the league's safest pair of hands. He has kept six clean sheets in his 15 appearances this season, and only one other 'keeper – West Bromwich Albion's Alex Palmer – has been able to prevent the opposition scoring on more occasions in the Championship.
In Preston's net, Freddie Woodman has two clean sheets in 16 games. He has conceded a goal every 65 minutes, 60% more often than the 104 minutes between goals for Alnwick.
In the last 10 years, Preston and Cardiff have played each other on 15 occasions. Preston won four of them, Cardiff seven, and they drew four times.
On average, the Lilywhites scored 0.9 goals and the Bluebirds 1.1 in those matches.
Their last meeting was on March 11, when Preston won 2-0 at home.
With 25 goals in 16 games so far this season, City are scoring more than average in the league with 1.6 goals per game. And they are conceding fewer than average, letting in 19 goals at a rate of 1.2 per game.
North End, meanwhile, are average scorers, with 1.4 goals per game. They have conceded 1.5 goals per game.
The Lilywhites are fifth in the table after 16 games, of which they have won eight and drawn four, earning 28 points.
The Bluebirds are four places behind the hosts in ninth, with seven wins and three draws putting them on 24 points.
Preston are in mixed form in the Championship, with two wins and two draws from their last six games.
And also with two wins and two draws over that period, the away team's form is identical – they have both taken eight points from 18.