Both Villarreal and Eibar will be looking for their first La Liga victories of the 2020-21 campaign when the two teams lock horns at Estadio de la Ceramica on Saturday afternoon.
Villarreal opened their season with a 1-1 draw against Huesca on home soil last weekend, while Eibar played out a goalless draw with Celta Vigo on their own patch.
Match preview
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There is no question that Villarreal would have been expecting to get off to a winning start against Huesca last weekend, but the Yellow Submarine actually had to come from behind to secure a share of the spoils, with Gerard Moreno's penalty in the 68th minute drawing Unai Emery's side level.
Villarreal finished fifth in Spain's top flight last term, but they will be looking to close the gap on the top four this season, and it will be very interesting to see what transpires in the coming months.
Emery's team have been relatively busy in this summer's transfer window, signing the likes of Francis Coquelin, Dani Parejo and Takefusa Kubo, while a £15m deal for Watford's Pervis Estupinan was announced earlier this week.
El Submarino Amarillo will be desperate to pick up all three points this weekend considering that their next game is away to Barcelona on September 26, while they also face a difficult trip to the Wanda Metropolitano to take on Atletico Madrid at the start of next month.
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Eibar, meanwhile, opened their 2020-21 season with a goalless draw at home to Celta Vigo last weekend; the hosts actually had Papa Diop sent off in the latter stages of the contest but managed to pick up a point.
Having claimed 10th, ninth and 12th in La Liga between 2017 and 2019, last season's 14th-place finish in La Liga has to go down as a slight disappointment for Eibar.
Jose Luis Mendilibar's side will be determined to secure another season at this level of football, but it would be fair to say that their transfer business has been modest at best.
Damian Kadzior has arrived from Dinamo Zagreb for £1.8m but exits have been the main story of their summer, with Fabian Orellana, Charles and Gonzalo Escalante amongst those to leave on free transfers.
Villarreal La Liga form: D
Eibar La Liga form: D
Team News
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Emery is expected to stick with the bulk of the side that started against Huesca last weekend, with Paco Alcacer and Samuel Chukwueze again likely to join Moreno in an attacking area.
Parejo and Coquelin should continue in the middle of the park, but there is expected to be a change at left-back with new signing Estupinan likely to debut.
Vicente Iborra is pushing for a spot in midfield, but Manu Trigueros and Javi Ontiveros are again expected to start on the bench for the home side this weekend.
Carlos Bacca could also shake off an injury to make the bench, but Alberto Moreno is still out.
As for Eibar, Diop is ruled out of the contest due to his red card against Celta last weekend, meaning that Recio could earn a starting role in the middle of the park.
Kadzior made his debut off the bench last time out, but the attacker could now come into the starting XI at the expense of Takashi Inui, with Pedro Leon lining up on the opposite side.
Jose Angel and Anaitz Arbilla, though, remain unavailable for selection through injury.
Villarreal possible starting lineup:
Asenjo; Gaspar, Albiol, Torres, Estupinan; Chukwueze, Coquelin, Parejo, Gomez; Moreno, Alcacer
Eibar possible starting lineup:
Dimitrovic; Correa, Alvarez, Oliveira, Bigas; Leon, Recio, Edu, Kadzior; Kike, Enrich
We say: Villarreal 2-0 Eibar
Villarreal's squad and indeed starting XI looks very strong this season, and we are expecting the Yellow Submarine to have a strong campaign. Eibar have quality in their ranks, but we are finding it difficult to predict anything other than a comfortable home victory in this particular contest.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:curl
Matt Law
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Villarreal win with a probability of 45.68%. A win for Eibar had a probability of 29.34% and a draw had a probability of 25%.
The most likely scoreline for a Villarreal win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.82%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.25%) and 2-0 (7.68%). The likeliest Eibar win was 0-1 (7.56%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.82%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Villarreal would win this match.
