Sunday Preview: 01.11.09

With Málaga rooted to the bottom of La Liga, manager Juan Muñiz will be hoping his team can salvage something from todays visit of Valencia. Having thrilled Spain last year with their exciting brand of football, having only been promoted the season before, its hard to pinpoint exactly where its all gone wrong. Perhaps it was the loss of talisman Eliseu to Lazio during the summer, or maybe after a poor start, the confidence that streaked through the team last year has been lost. Either way, a match against in-form Valencia could well be the spark they need to lift themselves off the foot of the table. Unai Emerys Valencia team have won their last three league encounters, with their attacking quartet of Villa, Silva, Mata and Pablo Hernandez in spectacular form. A win could see them move up into the Champions League spots, and if they could only sort out their defence, they would provide a serious challenge to the Real/Barca stranglehold.

Villarreal will be looking to continue their revival today with the visit of Tenerife to the Madrigal Stadium. Ernesto Valverde earned a reprieve last week with a scrappy win against Malaga, and will be more than happy if his team can repeat the trick today. Unfortunately, his starting line-up will be missing key players in the form of Cazorla, Senna, Ibergaza and the suspended Nilmar, who had just begun to find his goalscoring feet for the first time since his summer move from Brazil. Tenerife can be satisfied if they get anything from the game, but if they harbour any hopes of staying in the top flight beyond this season they will need to start collecting points away from home.

Zaragoza will be pleased to have got the yearly hammering at the Camp Nou out of the way, and will be looking to this home match against Almeria to get the six-goal demolition from Barca out of their system. Marcelino has insisted his team will finish the season inside the top ten positions, and matches like this are must-wins if he is to fulfill his promise. New signings Lafita and Jermaine Pennant will be expected to exploit any cracks in the Almeria defence in the Romereda today, whereas the man who almost single-handedly lifted 'Los Maños' out of the second division last season, Ewerthon, deserves his chance to stick away some chances after a hapless run of form from first choice striker Arizmendi.

Todays fixtures:

Villarreal - Tenerife
Espanyol - Valladolid
Mallorca - Racing
Zaragoza - Almeria
Malaga - Valencia
Deportivo - Sporting