Elche vs Sevilla

Hot relegation candidates Elche will be desperate to post their first La Liga victory of the season when they meet in-form Sevilla at the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero.

Elche’s sluggish start to the new La Liga season has seen them draw a blank in both opening top-flight matches, justifying reputation as one of the leading relegation candidates. If Elche can beat Sevilla at long odds here and post only their second La Liga home win over this opposition at the seventh attempt (W1, D2, L3), Elche would replicate their three-match start to last season, which eventually witnessed them avoid relegation by a mere two points. On the bright side, ‘Los Franjiverdes’ have gone unbeaten in their previous two home La Liga fixtures (W1, D1), keeping a clean sheet on each occasion. The last time they went three consecutive home top-flight games without conceding was in April 2014 (7). But after failing to shut Sevilla out in each of their four home league matches this century, they seem unlikely to reach that feat.

On the other hand, Sevilla went nuclear at the beginning of the new La Liga season, winning both opening league fixtures by an aggregate score of 4-0. Particularly lethal in the later stages of play, ‘Los Nervionenses’ scored beyond the 75th minute in each victory this term, with Eric Lamela producing both goals. Another triumph here would see Sevilla equal their best three-game La Liga start (W3) since 2006/07, which was incidentally the last season to yield a third-place finish. Adding to their confidence, Julen Lopetegui’s men have won 63.64% of their previous 11 away La Liga fixtures (W7, D2, L2). Yet, 71.43% of those victories featured a single-goal margin, with the last two coming by the same 1-0 scoreline.