Swansea City v Cardiff City: Sky Sports pundit issues South Wales derby prediction | OneFootball

David Prutton has given his prediction for the South Wales derby between Swansea City and Cardiff City on Sunday.

Swansea City take on Cardiff City in the South Wales derby at the Swansea.com Stadium on Sunday - and Sky Sports pundit David Prutton is predicting a 3-1 win for the Swans.

Swansea began their campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough on the opening weekend, but they secured their first win of the season with an emphatic 3-0 home victory over Preston North End on Saturday.

It was a dominant first half performance from the Swans, and after missing a number of chances, they eventually took the lead in the 40th minute through Matt Grimes' penalty, which was awarded when Eom Ji-sung's cross hit the hand of Liam Lindsay.

Preston improved after the break, but Swansea remained the better team, and Azeem Abdulai doubled their lead in the 61st minute before Zan Vipotnik added a third late on to open his account for the club following his summer move from Bordeaux.

While it has been a mostly positive start to the season for Swansea, it has been an incredibly poor start for Cardiff, and Erol Bulut's side are still waiting for their first league points and goals of the campaign.

After losing 2-0 at home to Sunderland on the opening weekend, the Bluebirds suffered their second consecutive defeat as they were beaten 5-0 by Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday, with Ethan Horvath's own goal and strikes from Luca Koleosho, Josh Brownhill, Zeki Amdouni and Johann Berg Gudmundsson sealing an emphatic victory for the Clarets.

David Prutton's Swansea City v Cardiff City prediction

Sky Sports pundit Prutton believes it will be another frustrating afternoon for Cardiff against their bitter rivals on Sunday, predicting a 3-1 win for Swansea.

"Swansea will fancy themselves at home, it's a great game played in a great atmosphere with a real bite to it," Prutton said on the Sky Sports Championship Predictions podcast.

"Luke Williams is obviously settled in what he wants from his Swans side, and Erol Bulut is still trying to find some form of early season form.

"It's a great game, having worked with people who have worked down in that part of the country, there's sometimes a lack of understanding from an English point of view of just how huge these two football clubs are and what it means to that particular area," Prutton continued.

"We've seen sometimes in these instances games boil over, and we've seen early sending offs which have killed either side, so cool heads are needed but hopefully there will be red hot action."

Cardiff City cannot afford to lose South Wales derby clash

Even at this early stage of the season, this feels like a crucial game for Cardiff after their disappointing start to the campaign.

After a strong summer transfer window that has seen the likes of Calum Chambers, Alex Robertson, Chris Willock, Anwar El Ghazi and Wilfried Kanga arrive at the club, there was plenty of optimism among Bluebirds supporters going into the season, but Bulut's men have failed to pick up a point or even score a goal in their opening two games.

It does not get much easier for Cardiff with a game against promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough to come before the international break, so it is important that they pick up a result against their South Wales rivals to avoid the pressure building.

Swansea have won five of the last six meetings between the two sides, and it is difficult to see anything other than a victory for the Swans this weekend.