In-form Valencia welcome Espanyol to the Mestalla on Friday afternoon as La Liga returns following the Christmas break.
Valencia find themselves eighth in the table – two points outside the top four – having won each of their previous three La Liga games.
💣💥 https://t.co/GDIx2qXDlz— Valencia CF (@valenciacf) December 26, 2021
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As for Espanyol, they sit eleventh – five points behind Valencia – after losing four of their last seven encounters.
Not only have Valencia won each of their past three games, but they have also avoided defeat in each of their previous seven.
That means they have claimed four wins and three draws since their last La Liga loss, underlining their new-found confidence.
When you look at the bigger picture, Valencia have lost just three of their past 22 home games across all competitions.
They have also managed to score at least one goal in each of their previous 20 home clashes in La Liga, meaning they will be confident of dispatching Espanyol.
On the flip side, it’s fair to say that Espanyol have endured a spell of inconsistent form over the past couple of months.
They made an impressive start to the season, losing just three of their first 11 games. Since then, however, they have lost four of their last seven.
The bulk of Espanyol’s struggles have come on the road. Indeed, they have lost each of their previous four away games in La Liga.
Worse still, they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last ten away matches across all competitions.
Given that each of Espanyol’s past three games have produced over 2.5 goals, Friday’s clash is likely to be a high-scoring affair.
Head-to-head: Espanyol have only managed to win one of their previous nine La Liga meetings with Valencia, recording one draw and seven losses in that time.
Valencia did the double over Espanyol during the 2019/20 season, claiming a 2-1 away victory before winning 1-0 at the Mestalla.
Team news: Valencia will be without right-back Thierry Correia on Friday as he continues to recover from a muscle injury.
Espanyol have no injury concerns, although Aleix Vidal, Leandro Cabrera and Kiedi Bare are all one yellow card away from receiving a suspension.
When you couple Valencia’s recent form with their impressive record against Espanyol, all the signs point towards a home win on Friday.
For that reason, Forebet predicts that Valencia will score over 1.5 goals on their way to dispatching Espanyol.