Villarreal vs Granada

Villarreal’s new La Liga campaign gets underway as they welcome Granada to the Estadio de la Ceramica.

Despite being beaten by Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup last week, the reigning Europa League champions are favorites to defeat a Granada side they have never lost to on home soil in La Liga (W5, D2). Unai Emery will be keen to galvanize his Villarreal team following an underwhelming 7th-place finish in 2020/21. A strong start could be essential to their hopes of claiming a top-four finish for the first time since 2015/16. Unbeaten in six of his last seven league openers with any club (W3, D3), Emery seems to have what it takes to lead his side to a flying start here. However, ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ have suffered five defeats in their last eight home La Liga fixtures (W3), as many losses as they had in their previous 35 such matches in the competition (W17, D13, L5).

On the other hand, a run of five straight La Liga games without a victory (D1, L4) to close the 2020/21 campaign saw Granada finish ninth in the standings. However, any hopes of pushing further up the La Liga table this time around have been hindered by an abysmal away form this calendar year, with the ‘Nazaries’ picking up just two wins from 12 top-flight trips in 2021 (D2, L8). Granada’s tendency to start a new domestic league campaign slowly when playing on the road has seen them go winless in their last five away league openers across all divisions (D3, L2). Additionally, except for a narrow 1-0 win over Elche, Roberto Moreno’s men have failed to win nine of their previous ten trips to Valencian Community outfits (D5, L4).