There are only eight LaLiga fixtures this weekend, given that the four teams are away in Saudi Arabia taking part in the Spanish Super Cup. Of those eight games, Real Valladolid vs Rayo Vallecano is the one with the smallest difference in odds between the home or away win, and it could be a close game.

But, Real Valladolid seem a little undervalued here. Sure, they’ve lost both their LaLiga games since the return from the World Cup break, but if you watched them then you’d have seen that they played well on both occasions, only losing 2-0 at home to Real Madrid after conceding a handball penalty in the final 10 minutes and only losing 1-0 away at Real Mallorca last weekend because of a 94th minute winner.

This is a team that has evolved as the season has gone on and Real Valladolid have become very tough to play against. They’ve also been especially strong at home, winning four, drawing one and losing three – including Real Madrid – of their eight matches so far at the Estadio José Zorrilla.

As much as Rayo Vallecano are a fun, ambitious and vertical team, it’s going to require one of their best road performances of the season for them to take the away win here against this Real Valladolid side that has all the counter-attacking tools to be able to pick Rayo apart in transition. Rayo have won just two of eight away games, as most of their points have been collected in front of their boisterous home crowd at Vallecas, so backing anything but an away win seems the way to go here.

Girona v Sevilla should be a very close one, and it’s tough to pick a winner given that the Catalan side are hard to beat and come into this game unbeaten in six LaLiga games, while Sevilla just earned an important victory last weekend and are welcoming players back from injury and suspension. One thing that is easy to predict, though, is goals.

These are two sides who score a lot and who concede a lot. If ranking how often both teams have scored in a team’s La Liga matches this season, both Girona and Sevilla are on the podium for this category. Girona are first place in this ranking, as 88% of their games have seen both teams score, while second place is Real Madrid with 81% and then third place is Sevilla, with 75% of the Andalusian outfit’s games having seen both goalkeeper’s nets ripple.

This is a season-long trend, but also a recent one too. Both teams have scored in each of Sevilla’s last four La Liga games, while Girona are on an incredible run of 13 games in a row with both teams scoring.

So, there is a very good chance that we’ll see both teams score again this Saturday, especially when considering the back-and-forth style that the two coaches will bring to this contest and when considering that most of these teams’ absences this weekend will be in defence. Two of Girona’s four injured players are defenders and three of Sevilla’s six injured players are defenders. Both goalkeepers should have a lot of work to do, including picking the ball out of the back of the net.

With a perfect nine wins from nine home matches, anything but a home win would be a major upset in the first Ligue 1 encounter of the weekend.

Lens might be coming off a 2-2 draw away against bottom side Strasbourg on Wednesday, but they should have far too much to overcome an Auxerre side that is arguably the worst in Ligue 1 on current form. Certainly, the low-scoring matches of the autumn appear to be a thing of the past for Lens. Five of their last six matches in the league have produced more than 2.5 goals, and each of their last two have seen exactly four.

Conversely, Auxerre are in wretched touch. Prior to the World Cup break they conceded five against PSG in a 5-0 loss and they went down by an identical margin against Toulouse on Wednesday. Although head coach Christophe Pelissier has drafted in some new recruits, there is no evidence of their defensive problems being fixed.

AJA travel particularly badly. They have lost seven of nine road trips this season, conceding 23 goals in the process. The Burgundy side have also lost three of their last four against Lens, although the last meeting between the clubs was in 2019.

With these two teams at opposite ends of the table, look for Lens to secure a victory. The hosts do not tend to run away with games – only three of their home wins have come by more than one goal – but AJA’s feeble defence means that a home win and over 1.5 goals looks a safe bet.

If there’s one thing we can expect from this match, it’s for there to be very few goals. These two teams are the two with the most matches ending with under 2.5 goals, with only eight of their combined 32 games this season ending with more than that. At El Sadar, the average is 1.63 goals per game, with no single team scoring more than two goals across 90 minutes at Osasuna’s stadium.

Only Almería have scored fewer goals at home this season and top scorer Chimy Ávila has been linked with a move away and was left out for the 0-0 draw with Athletic Club. That means that Croatian forward Ante Budimir is expected to start but has scored just one goal from 2.47 xG in LaLiga in 2022/23.

It also means that Jagoba Arrasate is likely to stick with the 4-3-3 shape that he tested against Athletic. It has been 113 minutes since Osasuna last conceded while playing with that formation, with only one goal conceded in 208 minutes while deploying it.

No side outside of the relegation zone has scored fewer than Mallorca’s 14 goals in 16 games. Much of that comes down to forward Vedat Muriqi. The Kosovan has been involved in 69.2% of Mallorca’s goals this season, but is going through a dry patch. He has not scored in consecutive La Liga games for only the second time this season, but what is even more of a concern is that he has gone 232 minutes without a shot on goal in the league.

It’s the first Basque derby of the season this Saturday night, with this one taking place under the lights at the Reale Arena. It is already a sell-out and the Real Sociedad fans are very much up for this one, given that they lost 4-0 in Bilbao in the last derby and given that this was back in February of 2022, meaning they’ve had a whole 11 months waiting for a shot at revenge.

Finally, they’ll have the chance to get back at Athletic Club and they will feel confident, given that La Real are sitting comfortably third in the La Liga table. Imanol Alguacil has hit team playing well and they have returned from the World Cup break in excellent form, which makes sense since they only had one player away in Qatar, in Take Kubo. The gradual return of star forward Mikel Oyarzabal from an ACL injury is another boost.

Their opponents Athletic Club, in seventh place, aren’t in bad form, but they haven’t impressed much across their pair of 0-0 draws since the return of club football. They also don’t do well when they play away from Bilbao, as they’ve won just two of seven away LaLiga games so far this season, while they haven’t won away at their Basque rivals’ stadium since 2017.

So, this looks like a game where Real Sociedad can get back on track. They are in better form at this moment in time and they should be extra motivated to respond to the 4-0 reverse from the last Basque derby, which La Real believe was a blip. Under coach Imanol, they’ve won five, drawn two and lost just two of his nine Basque derbies, including that thrashing last time out. So, they’ll want to prove that the 4-0 was a fluke.

Results wise, it’s difficult to know what to expect from Lyon at the moment, but on form, there is little doubt that this is a fixture that should be filled with goals.

Laurent Blanc will certainly want a reaction from his side after they were held scoreless against Nantes in midweek – a match that they could conceivably have lost. In their last home league outing, meanwhile, they went down to a shock 1-0 loss against Clermont.

Strasbourg are unlikely to provide such robust opponents. Racing, who are set to be under interim management following the sacking of head coach Julien Stephan earlier this week, have been miserable defensively of late. The Alsace side, incredibly, have scored two goals exactly in six of their last seven league fixtures yet have failed to win any of them. That underlines the number of goals that they are conceding at present.

On top of that, this is a fixture that has a history of producing goals. Eight of the last 10 have seen both teams find the net while seven of these have seen more than 2.5 goals. Indeed, 12 of the last 15 between these clubs have seen a minimum of three goals, dating back to the period Lyon were winning the title on an annual basis.

Given the volume of goals at both ends in Strasbourg matches and the need of a reaction from Lyon in this encounter, that is unlikely to change at Parc OL on Saturday. Seven of Strasbourg’s last 10 have produced at least 3.5 goals, and at 2.7 that is worth some consideration, with only Lyon’s weak recent form tempering that bet.