Espanyol v Sevilla
15:00
Espanyol picked up their first win in four as they beat Granada 3-1 at home, but they’re without a clean sheet in five, having kept five in a row prior to that. Sevilla made it five wins on the bounce as they won a 3-4 thriller at Osasuna as like their hosts they remain vulnerable defensively, with only two clean sheets in their last 10. Nonetheless, they remain within touching distance of Real at the top of the La Liga and are no doubt dreaming of the type of upset Atletico Madrid caused in 2013/14.
After early home defeats against Real Madrid and Celta Vigo, Quique Sanchez Flores’ Espanyol have since gone seven unbeaten at home, though they have had a fairly lenient fixture list as their last four have all been against current bottom-five teams. Having said that, they did manage goalless draws at home to Bilbao and Villarreal prior to that and since they also drew half their home games against top-six teams last term, they’ll fancy their chances of picking up a point here.
Sevilla have won three of their last four on the road but the exception was a defeat at Granada, who are down in 19th, and so the daemons of last season’s away performances may not have been entirely banished. Indeed, since bottom of the league Osasuna managed to put three past them in their last away game, we’re not particularly keen on backing Sevilla at 2.15. Instead, given Espanyol’s strong draw trend when hosting the top teams, we’re backing the stalemate at 3.4.
