Real Madrid’s first LaLiga game of 2023 sees them visit one of their least favourite stadiums, Villarreal’s Estadio de la Cerámica. Historically, Real Madrid have won less than half of their away games at Villarreal, with just 10 wins from 23, and that trend is very much true of Los Blancos’ past few visits there.

In each of the past five LaLiga seasons, the Villarreal vs Real Madrid match has ended as a draw. It was 2-2 in each of 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20, with a 1-1 in 2020/21 and a 0-0 last season. Even when Real Madrid have hosted Villarreal at the Bernabéu, they’ve also struggled, with three Real Madrid wins, one draw and one Villarreal win from their meetings in the capital over the past five years. Add it all up, and Real Madrid have won just three of their past 10 clashes with the Yellow Submarine home or away.

There is good reason to believe that Villarreal can take further points off Real Madrid this Saturday. Their 2022/23 squad is arguably the best in their history and they have everybody available this weekend except the long-term-injured Giovani Lo Celso. Plus, Villarreal are finally starting to click under new coach Quique Setién, producing an impressive 2-1 win over Valencia in LaLiga last weekend and winning their midweek Copa del Rey game 5-1, albeit against second-division opposition.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, failed to win so comfortably when they faced a fourth-tier side in the Copa del Rey on Tuesday, only scraping a 1-0 win at Cacereño. That followed another sluggish performance in LaLiga as they beat Real Valladolid 2-0 last week, but without playing at all well and needing a handball penalty to break the deadlock. Real Madrid’s World Cup players look fatigued, while the non-World Cup players look rusty. So, they really won’t be looking forward to this trip to one of their least favourite stadiums.

There is a Catalan derby on Saturday night as Girona make the short trip into Barcelona to take on Espanyol. This should be a fun one, considering these are two of the teams whose matches produce the most goals in all of LaLiga.
Looking at the average numbers of total goals per game this season, Girona’s matches have produced 3.07 goals per game (1.47 scored by Girona and 1.60 by their opponents), which is the second-highest total in this respect in the division. Espanyol matches also produce a lot of goals at both ends, as their fixtures so far in 2022/23 have conjured up 2.67 total goals per game (1.13 for and 1.54 against), the fifth-most in the division.
These stats logically mean that these sides have been involved in a lot of games in which both teams have scored. 87% of Girona’s games have seen both sides get on the scoreboard, the highest such percentage in the division. Meanwhile, 67% of Espanyol’s games see both teams score, the fourth-highest ranking in this category.
These are two sides whose strengths are in attack and not in defence or the goalkeeping position, so there is a really good chance, then, that both teams will ripple the net on Saturday night, as happened in each of their matches when they returned from the World Cup break last weekend.