Celta Vigo vs Espanyol

It’s Celta Vigo vs Espanyol, a midtable battle, that will get Matchday 18 of this LaLiga season up and running. This is Espanyol’s longest away trip of the year and that’s bad news for them since they have the second-worst away record in the division, with three draws and five defeats from eight trips so far.

But, it must be kept in mind that Celta Vigo have the second-worst home record in LaLiga, with one win, two draws and six defeats from nine matches at Balaídos, where ongoing construction work has sucked away most of the atmosphere. This week, at least, Celta Vigo are trying to draw a big crowd with various ticket promotions.

Celta Vigo will be encouraged too by the return from injury of their captain and talisman Iago Aspas. Even if he might not play the full 90 minutes, his presence always brings a sporting and emotional boost, as few players mean so much for their team as he does for Celta Vigo.

Both teams have some injury concerns over the right-back spot, with Kevin Vázquez a big doubt for Celta Vigo and with his backup and captain Hugo Mallo only just returning from an injury of his own. Espanyol’s Óscar Gil, meanwhile, is still sidelined, but Aleix Vidal has been doing a decent job at right-back in his absence.

Overall, expect this to be a tight one. But, Celta Vigo should be the slight favourites in front of what they hope will be a larger crowd than they’d had in recent weeks.

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Rayo Vallecano vs Alavés

The first of Saturday’s slate of LaLiga fixtures takes place at the Estadio de Vallecas, where Rayo Vallecano have been winning and winning and winning to start this campaign. Even though they’re a newly promoted side, Rayo sit in the European positions and that’s down to their home form. With seven victories and one draw from their eight home matches so far this season, Rayo boast the best home record in Spain’s top division and second-best out of Europe’s five major leagues, with only the stars of PSG earning more than Rayo’s 2.75 points per home match.

It’s Alavés’ turn to visit what is expected to be a sold-out Estadio de Vallecas this Saturday and they are a below-average away team. They did earn surprise draws away at Barcelona and Sevilla earlier in the season, but their only away victory in the league came against relegation rivals Cádiz. Alavés even got knocked out of the Copa del Rey on the road in midweek, losing 2-1 at third-tier Linares Deportivo, albeit with a quite heavily rotated side.

With Alavés also having more absentees ahead of their Saturday trip to Spain’s capital, this looks like an excellent opportunity for Rayo to extend their impressive record in front of their own fans.

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Real Sociedad vs Villarreal

Real Sociedad vs Villarreal might not bring the most entertainment of this LaLiga weekend, but this is quietly one of the most interesting games of the round. These are the teams that finished fifth and seventh last season, but Real Sociedad have had a difficult couple of weeks after a bright start to the season and Villarreal have been poor all year domestically, even if they reached the knockouts in the Champions League.

With former teammates Imanol Alguacil and Unai Emery in the dugouts, this should be a tactical tussle. That was the case last season as they drew 1-1 each time they met in the league. It’s a difficult one to call a winner for and another draw wouldn’t be a surprise.

Where there could be some value is in the total goals market, as these sides have consistently been involved in games with under 2.5 goals this season, albeit for different reasons. Real Sociedad are a team that dominate possession but that lack elite finishing, meaning they tend to win by small margins, whereas Villarreal are a team who park the bus after going ahead.

This season, Real Sociedad matches have produced 2.12 total goals on average, while Villarreal’s have had 2.19. That places both in the bottom five for average total match goals. When looking at La Real’s home games, they are dead last in that ranking with just 1.00 goal on average in their matches at the Reale Arena this LaLiga season, as a result of some binary code-esque scorelines. Villarreal’s away numbers, meanwhile, are 1.50 total match goals per road game.

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Barcelona vs Elche

Barcelona vs Elche is a meeting of two clubs who appointed new coaches in November and, honestly, it’s Francisco at Elche who has made a more positive impact so far than Xavi at Barcelona.

Comparing their records to date, Xavi has two wins, two draws and two defeats, while Francisco has three wins and one defeat. While it should be noted that two of Elche’s victories were in Copa del Rey action against lower league opposition, they were also millimetres away from turning last weekend’s 2-1 LaLiga loss at Valencia into a draw, only for the ball to be cleared off the line just in time.

For this Saturday’s game, Barcelona are the heavy favourites with the bookies and they probably will win the match at the Camp Nou, but the value there is really limited. It’s actually surprising how heavily Barcelona are favoured when you consider they’ll be without the suspended Gerard Piqué and also missing the injured Ansu Fati, Memphis Depay, Martin Braithwaite, Pedri and Sergio Roberto, while Jordi Alba is a major doubt and Sergio Agüero has just retired this week.

Barça could have had a big advantage for this game in terms of rest time, since they had a bye for this midweek’s Copa del Rey round, but they threw that away by organising a friendly against Boca Juniors in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. That was one day before Elche’s 1-0 Copa del Rey win over Unionistas de Salamanca, but at least Elche stayed in the same continent and managed to rest most of their starters on Wednesday.

This Saturday, Elche have what it takes to give Barcelona a good game and, given the Catalan team’s recent defensive frailty and the fact they won’t even have Piqué to marshal their back line, the visitors could certainly get on the scoreboard and make this another stressful evening for Xavi.

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Sevilla vs Atlético Madrid

Arguably the most exciting fixture of the LaLiga matchday, Sevilla vs Atlético Madrid has generally been a tight contest in recent years, with each team winning their home fixture when they met last season and with the previous four clashes finishing as draws.

Sevilla are currently ahead in the table, but are in bad shape coming into this weekend’s match and there are three main causes of concern for Julen Lopetetgui’s side. One is their poor performances of late, with a not-actually-that-rotated line-up requiring penalties to knock out fourth-tier Andratx in the Copa del Rey in midweek and with last weekend’s LaLiga victory in Bilbao coming despite being outplayed from minute one to minute 90.

Then, Sevilla’s third cause of concern is their list of absentees. They could be without half their starters for this weekend’s match as Fernando Reges, the holding midfielder who is the glue of this team, is suspended, while Jesús Navas, Suso, Erik Lamela and Youssef En Nesyri remain out injured and Marcos Acuña and Lucas Ocampos are major doubts.

While Atlético have a few injury issues of their own, their situation is not as bad. Stefan Savić and Antoine Griezmann will both miss this game and the French forward had been the team’s best player in recent weeks, but João Félix did really well in the second half of last weekend’s derby loss and can slot into Griezmann’s place. Meanwhile, negative COVID-19 results for Jan Oblak and Koke after a brief scare have come as a relief.

Most importantly for Atleti, they didn’t have a midweek fixture since they had a bye in the Copa del Rey and this could be the main difference for this match. It certainly won’t be easy for Atleti because whatever makeshift XI Sevilla field will give their all under the lights and in front of the home crowd, but Atlético should be considered favourites for this match, where the home win and away win are priced the same by the bookies.

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