La Liga Thoughts & Rambles: GW4
A look ahead to Gameweek 4 after an eventful international break.
Plenty of La Liga’s superstars had a run out for their national teams throughout the week, and it would make sense to focus on Spain’s matches against Bulgaria and Turkey in Sofia and Konya, respectively.
Spain’s starting eleven included the likes of Unai Simón, Pedri, Nico Williams, Lamine Yamal and Dean Huijsen, but it was Real Sociedad’s captain Mikel Oyarzabal who opened the scoring in the first half in the Bulgarian capital. Two Premier League players followed suit, with Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella getting his first international goal, and Arsenal’s Mikel Merino taking his tally up to five in thirty-seven caps. Spain were winning 3-0 at half time, and neither team was able to change the scoreline in the second half.
However, it was their trip to Turkey which made for the most exciting viewing. Luis de la Fuente named an unchanged side for their second game of the international break, and would’ve had an awfully strong sense of deja vu during the half-time team talk, as La Roja were 3-0 up again by the break. This time, however, they managed to do exactly the same in the second half, and ended up beating Arda Güler and his Turkish teammates 6-0. Despite a goal from Torres and a brace from Pedri presumably putting smiles on Barcelona fans’ faces, it would have been Arsenal supporters who were without a doubt the most jubilant, as Mikel Merino bagged himself a hat-trick, adding to his goal in the previous game vs. Bulgaria.
Round 4 Fixtures
Newly-promoted Elche will travel to Andalusia on Friday evening, to take on Sevilla in the first match of Gameweek 4. The hosts will be looking to build on their pre-international break form, where they broke their losing streak of two matches after defeating the struggling Girona 2-0. Their additions of César Azpilicueta and Alexis Sánchez should give them some confidence against an Elche side who are yet to be beaten this campaign, after holding Real Betis and Atleti to 1-1 draws, and beating fellow newcomers Levante 2-0.
The first “big match” of the weekend comes on Saturday afternoon, as Real Sociedad host Real Madrid. This contest couldn’t have come at a poorer time for Sociedad, who have had their worst start to a season since the 2015/16 campaign. It might help that skipper Mikel Oyarzabal returns to San Sebastián off the back of captaining his national team to two successive victories, but he’s going to need to be in the form of his life to prevent his team from elongating the current thirteen-match-long league winless streak against Real Madrid.
Xabi Alonso’s side arrive in full confidence after taking all of an available nine points from their initial three games, with Kylian Mbappé doing what he does best so far. There’s no rest for the wicked though as, like Oyarzabal, the French striker also captained his own side to two straight wins, scoring twice and getting an assist in the process. Mbappé’s international and domestic teammate, Aurelien Tchouameni, will be glad to be back in Madrid, after what was a disappointing appearance for him against Iceland, in which he was sent off after 70 minutes for a reckless challenge.
I’m anticipating an asymmetrical game and a decent performance from Real, as their man in goal, Thibaut Courtois, will be aiming to add to his tally of four clean sheets in five games so far (2 out of 3 for Real, 2 out of 2 for Belgium).
The following game sees the other only team with a 100% winning streak, Athletic Bilbao, host Deportivo Alavés in what will be the first Basque derby of the 2025/26 season. They’ll be hoping to make club history by winning their first four consecutive games, and will be looking to take advantage of Alavés’ apparent fear of winning away from home (they haven’t won on the road since September 2024).
That being said, Bilbao’s star man, Nico Williams, did leave the field of play prematurely during Spain’s match against Turkey due to an injury, and is set to miss Saturday’s game.
As mentioned in the last edition, Atleti have had a pretty bad start. Winless in three, they’ll be wanting to get things back on track at home to Villarreal in Saturday’s evening match. Diego Simeone can take some positives from the international break; Giocomo Raspadori scored two goals and two assists in both his matches for Italy, Slovakian defender Dávid Hancko bagged a goal in a 2-0 win against Germany, and Thiago Almada, Julián Alvarez and new man Nicolás González each got an assist Argentina’s 3-0 win vs. Venezuela.
Their form against Villarreal has been generally good throughout the Diego Simeone era, winning nine of twenty-six games and drawing eleven. But with that era perhaps beginning to come to an end, and faced with the challenge of facing an unbeaten, buoyant Villarreal side who have a knack for scoring goals, the head-to-head stats make negligible reading.
Marcelino’s side will be looking to capitalise on the weary atmosphere around Atletico Madrid, with all eyes on their new striker, Georges Mikautadze, who bagged a goal for the Georgian national team against Bulgaria earlier this week. That takes his tally up to 21 goals in 39 games.
Barcelona had been given permission by La Liga to play their first three matches away from home, to allow further breathing space for the construction and renovation process to be completed at Camp Nou, which they haven’t played in since 2023. They were due to resume home domestic duties on Sunday against Valencia, but have delayed the grand reopening for an unspecified date due to being unable to “obtain the administrative permits” in time. With home games against Getafe and Real Sociedad scheduled for later this month, it’s likely that it wont just be Sunday’s match that will instead be played at the six-thousand-seater Johan Cruyff Stadium.
Hansi Flick’s team will be hoping to make amends for dropping points away at Rayo Vallecano last time out, and they’ll be welcoming back a number of players who will be in good spirits. Pedri, Yamal, Christensen, Lewandowski, and even Marcus Rashford performed well for their respective sides during the international break, and will be looking to build on that momentum they sustained if they’re going to win La Liga again this season.
Valencia have been inscrutable so far, and are understandably the underdogs going into this one. Having only beaten Barcelona in the league four times since 2008, the bookies have them priced at around 17/2 to get the job done in this round of fixtures.
The Winning Treble
I can’t see things getting better just yet for Real Sociedad and their new manager, Sergio Fransisco, who is going to need more than a Mikel Oyarzabal miracle to get the better of this Real Madrid side, who I can see expanding on their perfect form.
Despite the loss of Nico Williams, I’m fairly confident that a pumped-up, derby-ready Bilbao can still make club history on Saturday against Alavés, and the bookies seem to think so too, pricing them as odds-on favourites. Nevertheless, I’d argue there’s still value in the 8/15 on offer.
As mentioned in the previous edition, I’m keeping a very close eye on Rayo Vallecano this season, particularly now in the early stages before they advance in their UEFA Conference League campaign. I can see some real value in the 2/1 on offer for them to beat Osasuna, who aren’t associated with scoring an abundance of goals.
Predictions
Sevilla vs. Elche - Sevilla win
Getafe vs. Real Oviedo - Draw
Real Sociedad vs. Real Madrid - Real Madrid win
Athletic Bilbao vs. Alavés - Athletic Bilbao win
Atletico Madrid vs. Villarreal - Villarreal win
Celta Vigo vs. Girona - Celta Vigo win
Levante vs. Real Betis - Draw
Osasuna vs. Rayo Vallecano - Rayo Vallecano win
Barcelona vs. Valencia - Barcelona win
Espanyol vs. Mallorca - Espanyol win
The 10-fold acca pays around 2,500/1 at the time of writing.
On a more serious note…
While not La Liga related, the most noteworthy story of the international break was without a doubt the World Cup Qualifier between Italy and Israel. As if nine goals wasn’t enough, the actual scoreline was trivial in comparison to what went on after the game, with Italy manager and former player, Gennaro Gattuso, at the centre of attention.
"It is heartbreaking to see civilians and children enduring what they are going through. We were simply unlucky to be in the same group as Israel.”
The controversy was sparked during a pre-match press conference on Monday, in which the Italy head coach described his team as being “unlucky” to be in the same group as Israel.
Tensions kept their momentum in the moments leading up to kick off to the game at a neutral stadium in Hungary on Monday evening, with Italian supporters turning their backs to the pitch during the Israeli national anthem. The fans then held up “STOP” signs in unison, in reference to the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza.
After the game, discord finally reached boiling point, not least due to an injury-time winner and the subsequent result. Namely in the form of a confrontation between Gattuso and Israeli forward Dor Turgeman, which featured a lot of pushing and shoving, and a lot of swearing. The Israeli players alleged they were subject to verbal abuse from the Italian team throughout the ninety minutes.
While genuinely important in terms of international football ahead of the 2026 World Cup, the scoreline was insignificant in comparison to the bigger picture, and was dwarfed by the symbolism that this game of football was a protest against genocide. The details of the match have therefore been left out.
And, on that note, it was great to see Gary Lineker win Best TV Presenter at the National Television Awards who, in his acceptance speech, said it was “OK sometimes for us to use our platform…to speak up on behalf of those who have no voice”. You can watch his speech in full here.
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