Villarreal will be looking to make it four straight wins in all competitions when they continue their 2020-21 La Liga campaign away to Getafe on Sunday afternoon.
The Yellow Submarine are currently third in the table with 15 points to show from their eight matches, while Getafe occupy eighth position, having picked up 11 points from their opening seven games of the season.
Match preview
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Getafe have won three, drawn two and lost two of their seven league matches this season, collecting 11 points to occupy eighth spot in the table, four points behind their opponents this weekend.
The capital outfit recorded a famous 1-0 win over Barcelona on October 17 but have only picked up a single point from their last two matches, losing to Granada before drawing with Valencia last weekend.
Jose Bordalas's team finished eighth in La Liga last season, which was a slight disappointment considering that they ended the 2018-19 campaign in fifth, securing Europa League football in the process.
Getafe have no European distractions this season and will be looking to push towards the top six, although they face a tough examination against an in-form Villarreal this weekend.
The Madrid club suffered a 3-1 defeat in the corresponding match with the Yellow Submarine last season and have only actually won one of the last five league clashes between the two sides.
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Villarreal, meanwhile, will enter this weekend's match off the back of an impressive 4-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Unai Emery's side have been excellent in Europe's second competition this season, beating Sivasspor, Qarabag and Maccabi to collect nine points from an available nine.
The Yellow Submarine have also been impressive in the league despite their crowded fixture list, picking up 15 points from their opening eight matches to occupy third position in the table, just a point behind second-placed Real Madrid and only two points off leaders Real Sociedad.
Villarreal have won two of their last three in Spain's top flight, including a 2-0 success over Real Valladolid on Monday courtesy of goals from Samuel Chukwueze and Pau Torres.
El Submarino Amarillo will be eyeing another three points this weekend ahead of their next game after the international break, which will see them welcome Real Madrid.
Getafe La Liga form: DWLWLD
Villarreal La Liga form: LWDWDW
Villarreal form (all competitions): WWDWWW
Team News
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Getafe will be without the services of Damian Suarez due to his red card against Valencia last weekend, meaning that Allan Nyom could switch to right-back.
Nyom's expected change of position could open the door for Abdoulay Diaby to come into the starting XI, while Jaime Mata is also likely to return to the side, having been named on the bench against Los Che.
The bulk of the side that featured at Mestalla is expected to line up once again, though, with Cucho Hernandez, Nemanja Maksimovic and Mauro Arambarri set to start.
As for Villarreal, Alberto Moreno, Juan Foyth and Francis Coquelin are all unavailable through injury, but Dani Parejo is expected to shake off an issue to feature in the middle of the park.
Gerard Moreno has overcome his recent injury and could now come into the XI, potentially joining Paco Alcacer and Moi Gomez as part of a front three, while Manu Trigueros should feature in midfield.
Pervis Estupinan appeared off the bench against Maccabi and is in contention to start, although Alfonso Pedraza should keep his spot at left-back for this weekend's contest.
Getafe possible starting lineup:
Soria; Nyom, Dakonam, Cabaco, Olivera; Diaby, Maksimovic, Arambarri, Cucurella; Mata, Hernandez
Villarreal possible starting lineup:
Asenjo; Gaspar, Albiol, Torres, Pedraza; Parejo, Iborra, Trigueros; Moreno, Alcacer, Gomez
We say: Getafe 1-2 Villarreal
Villarreal's recent form has been excellent, and Emery will be desperate to pick up another victory ahead of the international break. Getafe have made a solid start to the season, but we fancy the Yellow Submarine to secure a narrow win on Sunday afternoon.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Over 1.5:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Villarreal win with a probability of 41.41%. A win for Getafe had a probability of 30.06% and a draw had a probability of 28.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Villarreal win was 0-1 with a probability of 13.09%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.17%) and 0-2 (8.1%). The likeliest Getafe win was 1-0 (10.67%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.2%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 3.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Villarreal would win this match.
