Valencia vs Deportivo Alaves

In-form Valencia welcome out-of-sorts Deportivo Alaves to the Estadio de Mestalla, looking to maintain an unbeaten start to their 2020/21 La Liga campaign.

Desperate to bounce back from a tormenting bottom-half finish last season, Valencia have enjoyed a decent start to the new La Liga campaign, wrapping up four points from the opening two matches (W1, D1). A triumph here would follow a good omen, with Valencia last starting a new league season with two wins from three games in 2014/15, incidentally the last campaign that saw them secure a top-four finish. ‘Los Murciélagos’ can draw courage from winning their previous three home league fixtures by an aggregate score of 8-1, with each victory seeing them lead at half-time. Adding to Valencia’s confidence, they have netted over 1.5 goals in seven of their last eight top-flight H2Hs on home soil, with a 1-1 draw in 2020/21 being the solitary exception.

Meanwhile, Alves, who are no strangers to sluggish league starts, opened the new season with back-to-back defeats, as they did last season. An underwhelming start may not necessarily upset the traveling side, given they managed to avoid relegation in both previous campaigns they begun with consecutive losses. ‘El Glorioso’ alternated between winning (1) and losing (2) across their final three away La Liga matches to conclude last season, with each result (win/loss) seeing the victor keep a clean sheet. Conceding first could well put an end to the visitors’ hopes of picking up first points this term, considering they lost ten of the 11 away La Liga fixtures when falling behind in 2020/21 (D1). Despite scoring a league second-low 15 away goals last term, Alaves’ chances of finding the net here are considerably high, given that they’ve got on the scoresheet in 12 consecutive H2Hs across all competitions.