LaLiga Betting Tips

In a very congested league table, Espanyol currently sit eight in La Liga with seven points from six games.

They’ve played three games at home, losing one, drawing one and winning one - their loss came at the hands of Real Madrid and even then they gave them a very good run, losing 2-1 to a 90th minute goal.

Elche have just two points and remain winless in La Liga. Both points have come on the road but I don’t see them getting their first three points on the board in this one. Man-for-man, Espanyol have superior quality.

Aguado is the deepest of Elche’s midfield three and is tasked with being an enforcer. He’s averaged a hefty 1.79 fouls per 90 minutes, which is a substantial average when you look at his price.

He’s fouled in three of his four games, only blanking when he played 45 minutes. Again, he’ll be in competition with that Espanyol midfield that was mentioned in the Villar selection.

Elche as a squad have averaged 14.30 fouls per 90 minutes too and I expect this to be an absolute slog, with both sides averaging large foul numbers.

Dolan is the real creative spark for Espanyol. He’s their most direct player, he’s their quickest and best dribbler and he does buy fouls from his opponents.

Dolan has drawn 1.56 fouls per 90 so far this season in La Liga, he’s drawn two or more fouls in a couple of games already this season.

A key point here as well is his opponent, Buba Sangare, a player I’ve backed a couple of times already for fouls.

He’s averaged 1.25 fouls per 90 this season. He’s young and keen but he can be a bit rash.

He’s committed a foul in four of his six games, making two or more in three of those.

I looked at Villar last time out, his numbers across the board are mental. I took him to be fouled last time but the odds for that are so low now that it isn’t worth it, so I’m backing him to make a couple himself.

He loves to get embroiled in a battle. He draws 3.33 fouls per 90 minutes and commits 2.28 on average.

He’s committed two or more fouls in every La Liga game so far this season bar one.

Edu Exposito and Urko Gonzalez will line up on the other side and both combine for above two fouls drawn per 90 minutes.

Wrexham will be eager for a response following their 6-0 loss to West Ham last time out, which was their biggest ever defeat under Phil Parkinson.

The visit of Southampton is a testing one, but Wrexham will be drawn to the fact that the Saints have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last eight matches - only keeping one shutout so far this term, which came against Colchester in the EFL Cup.

Both league meetings between these sides last season saw BTTS, with Southampton coming away 5-1 winners in this fixture. That thrashing saw both sides record a healthy xG (1.25-2.35) and the meeting at St Mary’s saw similar underlying numbers (4.14-1.88). 

These two sides both earned promotion to the Eredivisie from the Eerste Divisie last season, and have struggled to match the quality of the division with Cambuur only winning one of their opening six matches - while Den Haag are yet to pick up three points, losing five of their six games.

There’s real defensive issues for both sides as well, Cambuur have conceded 18 goals across their six games so far (3.0 per game), and have seen BTTS in four of their last five matches - only keeping a shutout against Nijmegen last time out. They came away 2-1 winners when the sides last met, with that game seeing 30 shots.

Den Haag have also seen BTTS in four of their last five matches, only failing to score against Twente last time out during this run. They have conceded 16 goals across their six games (2.66 per game) and will surely be looking at this game as a must win given that it is likely to be a relegation six pointer. 

I think Alaves are at a really nice price here to get something from this game having avoided defeat in four of their six matches so far - netting 11 goals across these matches (1.83 per game).

Alaves scored in both head to head meetings between these sides in LaLiga last season, netting twice when the sides met back in May. They’ve scored in all but one of their league games so far this term, and face off against an Athletic Club side who have actually picked up three points fewer than their opponents, despite being favourites here.

Alaves rank sixth for expected goals in LaLiga, and are also averaging 5.20 shots on target per game. We are looking for them to find the back of the net just once here, which looks likely given how impressive they’ve been in forward areas so far this season.

Both of these sides have made decent starts to the campaign with both only losing one of their opening seven matches. 

The four point gap that exists between the teams is down to Birmingham being unable to kill off matches - drawing the joint most games of any side in the Championship (4). 

Middlesbrough saw four goals against Millwall last time out as they came from two goals down to earn a point in front of their own fans. They’ve seen 2+ goals in four of their last five matches, seeing 24 goals in total across their seven Championship matches (3.42 per game).

This is an important game for Chris Davies, who is still under pressure as Birmingham boss - they’ve seen 19 goals across their seven Championship games this term (2.71 per game).

You’d struggle to pick out a more in-form player on the planet right now. Raphinha has moved into the number nine position for Barcelona this season and he’s been absolutely brilliant.

Raphinha has nine goals and three assists in six games and comes into this off the back of a hat-trick against Racing Santander.

He’s averaged 2.47 shots on target per 90 minutes this season. He’s landed this selection in four of his seven matches in all competitions. One of his blanks he was an early sub.

He’s also the primary penalty taker for Barcelona now and they’ve already been awarded four this season.

Suazo will be lining up at left-back for Sevilla. He’s played every minute for them so far and averaged 1.83 fouls per 90 minutes.

It is very much a feast or famine with the Chilean. He has committed 11 fouls already this season but they’ve come in just three matches. He made five against Atleti, four against Vallecano and two against La Coruna.

The key here is his opponent will be Lamine Yamal. You don’t need me to tell you how dangerous he is. Yamal has drawn an average of 1.67 fouls per 90 minutes so far in La Liga and was impeded three times against Vallecano in the last match.

This is a really nice price for a player who’s averaged 1.60 fouls so far this season and ranks second in the Sevilla rankings for fouls committed.

He has made a foul in four of his five La LIga matches, he racked up four against Valencia.

Salas operates at the heart of Sevilla’s defence, so he’ll be tasked with keeping tabs on their frontline and you can make a case for any to draw a foul.

Barca’s forward line draw incredible numbers, whether it’s starters, subs or possible rotation with Adeyemi (3.08), Yamal (1.67), Fermin (1.46), Olmo (1.43), Gordon (0.88) & Raphinha (0.75).

Again, this looks like a very good price. It’ll be based on the caliber of opponent and the fact that Barca’s average fouls aren’t super high, especially for La Liga but at 9.33 it’s workable in this selection.

Sierra has drawn an average of 2.39 fouls per 90 minutes in La Liga this season and the 22 year-old has been fouled at least once in all of his six La Liga appearances.

Also, he’ll be up against Joao Cancelo. Cancelo’s average fouls are high at 1.52 per 90 minutes. He started last week for the first time in the league and committed two fouls.