Last night's 4-0 demolition of Leeds United at Elland Road by Cardiff City was a signal of intent for the increasingly impressive Bluebirds, and worryingly for the rest of The Championship, their best is yet to come.
The starting eleven which featured the frightening midfield of Chris Burke, Seyi Olifinjana, Peter Whittingham and Craig Bellamy just behind the deadly strike force of Michael Chopra and Jay Bothroyd are just getting started.
Whittingham, the joint top scorer of the whole league last season is now playing centrally rather than on the wing and he is only now starting to regain his scoring touch, netting 3 goals in 3 games and Olifinjana is just getting back to full match fitness after a wasteful few seasons at Stoke City and Hull City. Add to that the home town boy Craig Bellamy, whose performance last night defied the fact he has only trained a handful of times this season is not yet at match sharpness. When he soon does achieve it, the on loan Manchester City man will surely prove his Champions League quality which will create absolute havoc against any of the other 23 clubs in the league.
Despite the obvious need to gel as a team the Welsh club have still raced into the automatic promotion positions this season, equalling Queens Park Rangers on 29 points as they sit in second place, having lost only twice in thirteen games. This in no small part is due to the overwhelming quality on the pitch in all areas, shown in brutal manner in last night's game, where all the goals seemingly came out of nowhere, and were explosive in their finishing. This shows that in games where the creativity is not in full flow they can still grab goals in a flurry and at will.
I saw this first hand last season, when a good but not overly impressive performance against Bristol City at Ashton Gate was littered with six goals of seemingly brilliant nonchalance culminating in an embarrassing 6-0 win. The home crowd reacted with boos, jeers and throwing debris on the pitch, as Cardiff sauntered to victory with minimal fuss. Since that dark day for Robins fans, their Welsh rivals have improved their squad sufficiently, another sign that this season could, and probably should culminate in the Premier League having its first Welsh competitors.
A quick glance at the substitutes bench will make any opposition team shudder, showing the strength in depth this new Cardiff City squad now has. Jason Koumas, Andy Keogh, Danny Drinkwater, Chris Riggott and Stephen McPhail were all dispensable last night, but good enough to be indispensable at other Championship clubs. This strength in depth is what manager Dave Jones will hope curb the annual fall from grace that the club have suffered in recent seasons, where a poor patch has cost them either automatic promotion or a play-off place.
Striker Jay Bothroyd, now the top scorer in the Championship this season, was quick to remind fans last night the season is still young and is won in May, not November. The former Wolves and Blackburn forward, who was lucky not to see red last night for a horrendous challenge on Leeds' Argentinian Lucciano Becchio, (and showed no remorse for it in his post match interview) will I am sure like everyone else, have a hunch that his side are serious contenders.
Cardiff City now have an aura about them, sides coming up against the Bluebirds will be wary of the threats they pose, and will probably play against them in a fairly negative way in an attempt to stifle the frightening front five. Whether they can or not is open to debate, but just like in previous seasons, promotion is for the Bluebirds to lose.
However, this time, with the mighty impressive squad Jones has assembled, they've given themselves a real fighting chance.
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