The mid-week fixtures in La Liga are spread across three days and there are a few matches to be played on Thursday evening. One of which is at the Anoeta Stadium as Real Sociedad welcome Deportivo Alaves to San Sebastián in the Basque Country.
Real Sociedad start the sixth round of fixtures in Spain sitting in 5th place in the table on 10 points. That leaves them only one point adrift of the league leaders, which is rivals Athletic Bilbao. Alaves are down in 15th place with 5 points from their five games played.
The hosts recorded a good 3-1 victory away to Espanyol on the weekend. They were 2-0 up after 34 minutes and went on to score a third goal in the second half. The win came on the back of another 3 points which were won courtesy of an excellent 2-0 result at home against Atletico Madrid.
Having also defeated Real Mallorca away and held Valencia to a 1-1 draw at Mestalla, Real Sociedad have lost just one match this season but it did come at Athletic Bilbao, which will be disappointing.
Nonetheless, trends show Real Sociedad are good at home and they have won six of their last seven home matches in La Liga. They have won three in a row on home soil and have seen under 2.5 goals scored in five of their last six La Liga games.
Alaves come into this game having suffered their second successive defeat in La Liga on the weekend. They went down 2-0 at Athletic Bilbao and that followed a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Sevilla the week before.
The two losses came on the back of a good start to the season for Alaves. They opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over Levante at home and were then held to a 1-1 draw at home by Espanyol. Another draw followed, this time at Getafe but at least Alaves were proving tough to beat at the beginning of the season.
Trends show Alaves have struggled to win matches for some time and they have recorded only two wins in their last fifteen La Liga games. They have been defeated by 2 or more goals in three of their last six away league matches and have been losing at both half-time and full-time in four of those six games.
Team news and Real Sociedad are without Asier Illarramendi who is recovering from a broken ankle. Modibo Sagnan, Joseba Zaldua and Portu are doubtful although the former is back in training.
Alaves are still without Burgui who has a knee injury. He is the only player set to be unavailable for Alaves in this game.
Real Sociedad will see this is a great opportunity to extend their good start to the season. They should be able to break down the Alaves defence and could win this game without conceding a goal.