Real Madrid vs Villarreal

High-flying Real Madrid and underperforming Villarreal will square off against each other at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in an intriguing La Liga match-up.

A thumping 6-1 home victory over newly-promoted Mallorca last time out sums up Real Madrid’s early La Liga exchanges in a nutshell. Carlo Ancelotti’s return to the helm has brought ‘Los Blancos’ attacking football back to life, with last season’s runners-up netting a staggering 21 goals in their inaugural six league matches under the returning manager. A six-match unbeaten start to this La Liga campaign under Ancelotti (W5, D1) is actually a part of Madrid’s remarkable 24-game run without a loss in Spain’s top-flight (W18, D6) spanning back to their awkward 1-0 home defeat to Levante in January. Backed by an eye-catching seasonal opening, ‘Los Merengues’ will be looking to post back-to-back La Liga victories over Villarreal for the first time since 2014 and extend their winning streak in league home H2Hs to four matches.

Despite losing their last three La Liga visits to Madrid, Villarreal have put in some resistance, netting at least once on each occasion. By extension, each of the last seven top-flight meetings with these two witnessed both teams on the scoresheet, with six of them featuring 3+ overall goals. That’s the kind of statistic they will be looking to dwell on heading into this matchday after drawing each of their three away La Liga matches this term, two of which without troubling the scoresheet. Cagey beginnings under current boss Unai Emery had seen each of Villarreal’s inaugural four La Liga fixtures this season yield a goalless half-time prior to a 4-1 thrashing of Elche last time out. ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ would settle for another draw here, given that they’ve won just one of their previous 21 away La Liga matches against Real (D5, L15).