Atletico Madrid shared the points in a frustrating 0-0 draw away from home against Huesca during the week but it at least preserved their unbeaten start in this season’s La Liga season as well as extending their unbeaten run in the Spanish flight to an impressive 18 matches overall.
With 10 wins and eight draws, Atletico Madrid have become a very hard team to beat both home and away, while results at their Estadio Wanda Metropolitano have seen Diego Simeone’s side put together a 12-match unbeaten sequence which includes nine wins and a 3-1 win over Saturday’s opponents, Villarreal, back in February.
Indeed, such has Atletico Madrid’s dominance been over the rest of the Spanish top flight (with the exception of Barcelona and Real Madrid), is that the aforementioned teams are the only ones to beat Saturday’s hosts in their last 40 matches at home in La Liga!
In addition, Atletico Madrid have won the last two encounters at home against Villarreal and will be keen to exploit any defensive errors this Saturday in order to claim all three points.
On the subject of defensive errors, Villarreal were guilty of a glaring mistake by goalkeeper, Asenjo, who completely misread the bounce of a long ball forward from Deportivo Alaves and the ball sailed over his head and into the path of Edgar who gleefully tucked the ball away.
In the end, it was immaterial as Villarreal ran out comfortable 3-1 winners but their defensive frailties were there for all to see even against the bottom outfit, Alaves, who carved out quite a few decent goalscoring opportunities but lacked the clinical edge up front to make Villarreal pay.
Villarreal have also had the luxury of playing three of their four matches to date in this season’s La Liga campaign on home turf at their Estadio de la Cerámica which has produced seven points, but it’s a different story away from home.
The visitors’ one away match so far this term was at Barcelona where they found themselves on the end of a heavy 4-0 hammering and they hit the road again this weekend to face the potential 3rd placed team in La Liga, Atletico Madrid, where they could once again come undone.
It’s interesting to note that Villarreal have lost at Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona within their last eight matches on the road, and another defeat could be looming at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano this Saturday.