Cardiff’s spot of bother sees them fall to heavy defeat

FOR Cardiff City, it wasn’t so much that a former Swansea City favourite denied them a lead that might have brought their first Premier League away victory since promotion, but how they then proceeded to leave the floodgates open for West Ham United.

Neil Warnock has longed for his side to be awarded a penalty this season, but when it came for Joe Ralls it was Lukasz Fabianski who kept the beleaguered Bluebirds midfielder at bay from 12 yards.

Not how Warnock had envisaged, surely, but what came afterwards will have angered him more, a comedy of defensive errors allowing Lucas Perez to score two rudimentary strikes after the break, before another set-piece concession from which Michail Antonio benefited.

The punishment met the crimes on this occasion.

Because a competitive first-half Cardiff performance was followed by an aberration of a second half.

Warnock had kept his promise in avoiding a repeat of the wing-back system that stymied Wolves, but he did retain Friday night goalscorer Junior Hoilett, with Victor Camarasa given a wide role yet again.

Joe Bennett returned for the first time since the 1-0 home defeat to Leicester a month ago, with Bruno Manga reverting to right-back.

Yet, while Warnock came to east London to be compact, his opposite number Manuel Pellegrini was determined to be expansive and was rewarded with three goals from his side.

The Chilean plumped for Antonio – who can play as a striker – on the right side of defence with Cardiff, ironically, continuing with rightback-turned-striker Callum Paterson at the apex of their team.

And it was Antonio who was presented with the first sight of goal, but badly mistimed his header from Robert Snodgrass’ free kick.

The Scot had been a transfer target for Cardiff in the summer with his Hammers future seemingly on a knife-edge before Pellegrini arrived.

The manager’s decision to reintegrate Snodgrass looked justified, however, with the midfielder influential throughout at the London Stadium, jinking through defenders and exchanging passes with Issa Diop before seeing his early shot blocked.

That set the tone for the first 30 minutes, which were almost exclusively played in the Cardiff half and dominated by claret shirts.

Two more Snodgrass corners brought two more West Ham chances on the 20-minute mark with Neil Etheridge saving from both Angelo Ogbonna and Declan Rice.

Marko Arnautovic tried to take matters into his own hands with a direct burst of pace to beat two Cardiff defenders, his shot cleared off the line by Sean Morrison.

The Bluebirds’ compact set-up was frustrating the dominant hosts, but