Last season: The Bluebirds are one of the three teams advancing to the Premier League this season. This will be the first time Welsh side appear in the Premier League and one could assume they are hungry for recognition and are here to stay.

The Welsh side finished first in last year’s Championship table with 87 points, eight points ahead of Hull City. Malky Mackay’s team managed to win 25 games out of 46 and lost nine. They had a good home record, where they only lost two games, won 15 and conceded only 15 goals.

They are a consistent side that can score goals away from home and keep clean sheets which may earn them a lot of precious points this season. This is a team that works together as one unit as there is no mystery about why their top scorer is not on the top ten goal scorers of the Championship. However, the Premier League is no Championship.

Transfer Ins:

Gary Medel (Sevilla)

Steven Caulker (Tottenham Hotspur)

Simon Moore (Brentford)

John Brayford (Derby County)

Andreas Cornelius (Copenhagen)

Transfer Outs:

Elliot Parish (Bristol City)

Jesse Darko (AO Episkopi Rethymno)

Stephen McPhail

Nathaniel Jarvis

Heidar Helguson (End of career)

Player to watch: The Bluebirds have just lost last season’s top scorer, Heidar Helguson, who netted eight goals but have still got Peter Whittingham and the Iceland international midfielder Aron Gunnarsson who both scored the same amount of goals.

They also boast players like Fraizer Campbell who scored seven goals and comes from Manchester United’s academy and was with Sunderland for four years with 58 appearances and six goals to his name. He also had one appearance with the England national team in 2012.

The 25-year-old forward is technically gifted – proven by his good dribbling skills, speed, shooting abilities and impressive playing style.

Cardiff also have Craig Bellamy up front who is no stranger to the Premier League – playing for Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester City previously. Although he is now 34 years old he can help with his experience and push the team’s youngsters to improve their game. In his four-year tenure at Newcastle he managed to score 28 goals for the Magpies.

Young player to watch: The most promising talent from Tottenham’s academy in recent years Steven Caulker could be able to bring a lot to the table with his abilities at the back. The 21-year-old has earned the trust of Roy Hodgson and is now a part of the England senior squad. His departure from Spurs also brought a lot of reaction from the fans as they couldn’t understand Daniel Levy’s motives, so Cardiff might have hit the jackpot on this one.

Player needing to improve: The whole team will have to improve on the goal-scoring part as they had no top scorer in the top 10 positions of the Championship last season. The forwards will have to find the back of the net as this will be the most important factor in keeping the team away from relegation.

Prediction: This is a team that stood their ground well in the Championship and has proven that their qualification to the Premier League was no fluke. The newcomers could provide other Premier League teams with a few shocks if anyone dares to underestimate them.

If they manage to use their home advantage then they can get nab unbelievably precious points and survive in their debut Premier League season.

Our prediction: 17th place.

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