Next Saturday, 8th of November 2014, an utterly inspired Celta de Vigo will entertain a clearly demotivated Granada at Los Balaídos for round 11 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, a match during which the home side will surely want to prove that their impressive win against Barça last weekend did not happen by mere chance.

It took 73 years for Celta to win at Camp Nou but after what they did last Saturday, there aren’t any doubts left that Los Celestes are, by far, the revelation of the current edition of La Liga.

After granting an impressive draw at Vicente Calderón, Celta de Vigo continued to prove they are no pushovers and inflicted the second defeat of the season to Barcelona. The current Barça’s manager, Luis Enrique, was ironically at the helm of Los Celestes last season and has a great share of “guilt” in how the Galician team is playing today, but not even his excellent knowledge of his former players was enough to overcome a well organized Celta. Although the Asturian born manager had a huge impact on Celta’s game style, the truth is that almost all the credit goes to their new boss and former player Eduardo Berizzo, who catapulted Los Celestes to a completely different level. The team’s intensity and tactical mastery is remarkable across the board and it is fair to say that there aren’t many teams playing like them on the current Spanish football panorama.

Berizzo, a confessed admirer and close friend of the football master Marcelo Bielsa, brought a new dimension to Celta’s already versatile 4-3-3 system and so far has managed to take out the best of the players, particularly the flamboyant winger Nolito and the newcomer Larrivey, who netted in his team’s goal at Camp Nou after a superb assist from former Barcelona B and Luis Enrique’s pupil, Nolito.

Another player that has been having a huge impact at the team is their goalkeeper, Sergio Álvarez. The Pontevedra born goalie was always in the shadow of the other goalkeepers of the team during the previous seasons but the arrival of Berizzo and the departure of Yoel during the Summer opened the door to El Gato de Catoira and he is proving to be one of the netminders of the league so far.

As for Granada, their current reality is not as bright as it is for Celta, since the team is currently on a six-match row without a single win. After a quality season start, Granada seem to be starting to lose that initial stamina and their last weekend’s heavy defeat at the hands of the all-powerful Real Madrid certainly hasn’t help. The experienced Spanish manager, Joaquin Caparrós, who arrived this Summer at the Andalusian team, has a gigantic task in his hands in order to recover his team’s morale and a match against a highly motivated side such as Celta is probably not the best way to start that much needed recovery process.

Celta are firm favourites for next Saturday’s match and, although it is not likely that Granada will be able to cause an upset at Los Balaídos, it is fair to remember that they have already defeated Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés this season.

Celta

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWDLW

Granada

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LDLLL

Possible Line-ups

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Jonny - S. Gómez - Cabral - Mallo - Álex Lopez - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Larrivey

Granada (4-4-2) - Roberto - Nyom - Babin - Murillo - J. Carlos - Sissoko - Rico - Iturra - Eddy - El-Arabi - Success

Prediction

Celta de Vigo 2 Granada 0