Next Sunday, 2nd of November 2014, Villarreal will entertain Valencia at El Madrigal for round ten of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on what will certainly be another excellent Comunidad Valencia’s derby between two of the most impressive teams at La Liga so far this season.

El Submarino Amarillo almost got a categoric win at Sánchez Pizjuán last weekend but two late goals from Sevilla denied Villarreal’s moment of glory. In fact, it was a fantastic match between two top quality Spanish teams and, if it wasn’t for Gio dos Santos’ sloppiness on injury time, Villarreal would have at least granted a point from their always complicated trip to Andalusia.

The team from the Castéllon province were on a fantastic four win streak before the match against Sevilla and honestly, their defeat with one of the current league leaders does not, by any means erase, the quality and the impressive work Marcelino Toral has been doing so far at the helm of the Yellow Submarine.

Villarreal’s game style is probably one of the most attractive ones in La Liga at the moment and if we also take a look at their recent international performances we can also easily conclude that the team is making a stand at the UEFA Europa League as well.

Their weekend derby against Valencia will surely be one of the team’s most difficult challenges so far, but they will certainly do everything within their grasp to inflict their second defeat of the season to their neighbours and rivals. Villarreal have already lost twice at home this season, however, it is fair to say that it was by the hands of Real Madrid and Barcelona and even so the home side gave them some hard time.

As for Valencia, the team of Nuno Espirito Santo continues their excellent moment and last weekend they didn’t experience any major difficulties to overcome Elche at Mestalla. Los Che put up another quality performance and managed to break the visitor’s defensive wall with three headings from corner kicks (the last one was an own goal), which exposed Elche’s poor marking skills.

When Nuno Espirito Santo took the helm of Valencia early this season, no one really believed in his work and in the possibility of him lifting the team’s morale after another disappointing campaign last term. The Portuguese manager is, in reality, catapulting Valencia’s to another dimension, placing them only two points behind the league leaders after nine matches.

There are no real favourites for next Sunday’s match, but Villarreal might enjoy from a slight favouritism since they are playing in front of their enthusiastic fans, who very often act as their twelfth man.

Villarreal

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - LWWWW

Valencia

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WLWDW

Possible Line-ups

Villarreal (4-4-2) - Asenjo - Gaspar - Paulista - Ruiz - Costa - Gomez - Manu Trigueros - Cheryshev - Bruno - Uche - G. dos Santos

Valencia (4-3-3) - Diego Alves - Gayá - Otamendi - Mustafi - Barragan - Javi Fuego - Parejo - André Gomes - Rodrigo - Piatti - P. Alcácer

Prediction

Villarreal 1 Valencia 1