Espanyol vs Villarreal prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2022-11-08 19:00.
Thanks to a profligate AtlĂ©tico Madrid, Espanyol got away with their fourth red card of this La Liga (LL) season (D2, L2 when finishing with fewer than 11 players) to keep the relegation zone at bay for at least one more round as they drew 1-1 at the weekend. It was a “deserved” and “hard earned” point that jubilant manager Diego MartĂnez chose to celebrate as a “victory”, perhaps partially as it was his first point taken from AtlĂ©tico in nearly three years.
Espanyol continue to fight hard for their results, having conceded the opening goal in a league match on more occasions (ten; D5, L5) than any other club this LL season. Perhaps most impressive is that their four LL equalisers since mid-September have all been within 25 minutes of falling behind, which has kept them in the hunt for lengthy periods, even if they continue to fall short of a complete performance.
Espanyol have previously played Osasuna and Sociedad back into form after their early-season wobbles, so the home side cannot take the recent poor showings of Villarreal for granted. There must be some worry setting into the visitors camp, though, as Quique Setién suffered the ignominy of the worst start to a tenure (D1, L3 in all competitions) of any Villarreal manager this century.
SetiĂ©n will be hoping to bring some of his historically good luck to this fixture after taking a positive result from each of his last six clashes with Espanyol (W4, D2), though he’s going to have to end a drought that has plagued Villarreal long before his sudden arrival. Since achieving what Espanyol failed to do last round – win away to AtlĂ©tico (2-0) – Villarreal are winless from six LL trips (D2, L4) without a single goal to their name (0-6 aggregate).
Players to watch: After setting up the weekend’s opener for Sergi Darder, Joselu will be keen to find the net himself after goals in four Espanyol LL home games this season. Although yet to score since August, Yéremy Pino can dream of replicating his only appearance against Espanyol, where he scored the first four goals of the match!
Hot streak: Espanyol have not led at half-time in any of their last 22 LL matches (HT: D14, L8).