Villarreal at Mallorca: La Liga Preview

Back to the grind in La Liga, it’s mid September and we have yet to take the pitch this season without it ending in a draw after regular time. I, for one, am tired of it, but I also suspect that breaking this streak will be harder than most people think against Mallorca.

Our Opponents

I tweeted out before the season started (as I shared our preseason predictions here at the site) that Mallorca would safely stay up this season and thus it’s been so far as they sit on 7 points out of four matches. Now, granted, we have a match in hand, but even if we win we will not be above them in the table after this weekend is over. Fer Niño if off the blocks with a goal for them this season and he should feature in this match one way or another. Take Kubo will also almost certainly get a run at us which he may well be quite motivated for but he’s not any good so that doesn’t scare me.

Jaume Costa is on the roster, but as of yet has not featured for them.

Villarreal

I think we’re finally getting healthy, and even though the result didn’t go how we would have liked against Atalanta we played much better than we had in our last two La Liga outings before the break. With Parejo and Pau continuing to shake off rust and get into a groove I think we should do very well here. I never ever know how Emery will or won’t rotate the side when a midweek European match is involved so I’m not even going to try to give you a full lineup. Many will call for Danjuma to start, and with good reason as he’s looked lethal already this season. I suspect it’ll be a while before Emery trusts him enough in the system to start him against top teams, but a team of Mallorca’s quality might be a good chance to try that out.

Prediction

I think we win here, but it’ll be tough. Mallorca is going to get a lot of points at home this season. 2-1 final in favor of the boys in yellow.