Villarreal vs Espanyol Betting Tips

As it often is, it has been a busy summer at El Madrigal with plenty of comings and goings. The new signings appear to have settled well though and Villarreal impressed during pre-season and had the better of their opening game away at Real Betis but had to settle for a point after a late equaliser by the Seville club.

Marcelino will take plenty of positives away from the game especially given how badly they ended the last campaign. Roberto Soldado was certainly one of those positives. He netted the Villarreal goal on his debut at Real Betis and the striker who has a prolific record at various clubs in this league could be a big threat again here after a nightmare spell at Tottenham.

Villarreal are typically very strong at El Madrigal, particularly against the mid-table and bottom half sides so you have to fancy them to win this game. Last season only two clubs outside the top five managed to pick up any points here although one of those was Espanyol who romped to a shock 3-0 win in April. That was during Villarreal’s major end of season slump though and they already look refreshed and re-invigorated this time around so a repeat is highly unlikely.

Espanyol won 1-0 on the opening day but not in entirely convincing fashion against Getafe. They were ahead inside three minutes through Salva Sevilla but the visitors dominated large parts of the game and had an astonishing 68% of the ball as well as the better chances.

Therefore they may struggle badly against a good passing side like Villarreal and it is hard to see them having enough possession to really create much. Villarreal won eight home games to nil last season in La Liga and look good value to do likewise again here at 6/5.

They are still finding their feet going forward though with lots of new players trying to bed into the side. The first weekend in La Liga saw very few goals and this could be another low scoring game but Villarreal should nick it with an extra bit of quality in their side as well as home advantage. Therefore a 1-0 home win might be worth a punt at 9/2.