FCBARCELONA.CAT

22.09.2009 13:03

Spanish League Preview Week 4

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As well as Racing and Barca, Seville and Mallorca arlso play on Tuesday night in the first midweek games of the 09-10 La Liga season, with the rest of the matches spread over Wednesday and Thursday.

Seville have won their last three games, seeing of Zaragoza and Osasuna in the league and Unirea in the Champions League and a win tonight will leapfrog them over the unbeaten Mallorca into the top four. Seville welcome back Fabiano and Konko after injury, whilst Mallorca boss Gregorio Manzano has promised: “five new faces to freshen up the team” for the game. Valencia are sandwiched between Mallorca and Seville in fifth spot and will look to get over the disappointment of their 2-2 draw at home to Racing on Sunday with a result at Getafe on Wednesday night.

Pellegrini back at Villarreal

Unbeaten Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao both face potentially tricky away trips, with Pellegrini taking his expensive squad to Villarreal for the first time since he signed on for Florentino Perez's new project and Bilbao making the long haul to Tenerife. Madrid will be without Ruud Van Nistelroy who suffered a thigh injury scoring his goal on Sunday after returning from a nine month injury lay off and will now be out for up to to five weeks more. The pressure is building on his opposite number Valverde with Villarreal having taken just 2 points from their first three games, but Spanish international Joan Capdevilla reckons: “the game's coming at the right time for us. If we win, it'll mean more than three points, it'll be a real morale booster”.

Espanyol out to build on Deportivo win

Malaga, who host Barca at the weekend, are in Barcelona for the game against Espanyol, who will be hoping that their newly laid pitch holds up better than the last one, which had to be taken up after the game against Madrid. Pochettino is again without Tamudo and De La Peña, but welcomes back Ivan Alonso and Nakamura who both missed the win in La Coruña. Deportivo themselves travel to Xerez, who are still looking for their first goal and first point in the top flight after three defeats, whilst fellow strugglers Osasuna face the first of two potential six pointers with a trip to Valladolid ahead of the weekend's clash with Sporting.

Atletico Madrid still searching for first win

Atletico Madrid fans probably didn't imagine that they'd still be waiting for their team to record their first win after three games, but defeats to Barca and Tenerife and a draw with Sporting have left them floundering second from bottom with just a single point ahead of Wednesdays home game against Almeria. Finally, on Thursday Zaragoza and Sporting meet in Gijon to round off the fourth round of games.