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ecame City’s man, ishing work of heem Sterling. Cardiff ’s frustration turned to anger as Joe Ralls planted a studs-up challenge into the leg of Gundogan.

How he escaped serious injury was anybody’s guess. How Ralls escaped with only a booking, you’d have to ask referee Michael Oliver.

Luckily, that did not result in a blood bath. Maybe watching Cardiff defender Lee Peltier being carried off with a dislocated shoulder calmed it all down.

Apart from City’s free-flowing attackers, that is. Mahrez broke his duck for the club in the 67th minute when he tapped in Gudogan’s centre.

Even then they were not finished – at the death the £60million signing from Leicester punished sloppy defending with a second and City’s fifth. Enough for Warnock to accept his Bluebirds were outclassed.

Yet in typical defiance, he insisted his team, second from bottom and without a win, will bounce back.

The Cardiff supremo said: “It was a long afternoon. But those goals killed us and I’ve not seen our heads go down like that.

“They find a weakness and one lapse and they are in. The quality was there for everyone to see. After half-time it was damage limitation.

“It’s a disappointment but it is not going to define our season playing the top sides. It is how we do against the other 13 teams in the league that will do that. That is where we have to pick up the points.”