Villarreal are enjoying their best La Liga campaign since 2010/11 and looking on course for a return to the Champions League having cemented their position in fourth.
Head coach Marcelinho has sculpted a side based on efficiency, organisation, defensive discipline and hard work and the results are easy to see.
Villarreal are at their most threatening at their El Madrigal and since returning to the Spanish top-flight, the Yellow Submarine have recorded W32-D10-L12 when welcoming La Liga opposition.
Since May that return across all competitions reads W19-D3-L3 including 15/25 clean sheets. The likes of Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen have been dispatched ‘to nil’ here, Barcelona saw a 2-0 lead slip and Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid were beaten.
Seventeen of those aforementioned 32 home La Liga triumphs were by a margin of two goals or more and this season they’ve W6-D1-L0 when welcoming teams in 13th and below. Although in Europa League action on Thursday, I expect the Yellow Submarine to make quick work of Getafe.
The visitors from the capital have suffered 25/34 (74%) defeats as guests since the start of last season, 18 (53%) of which were by margins of at least two goals. The Deep Blues have fired blanks in 17 (50%) of those matches and silenced their hosts just twice.
The second-from-bottom Deep Blues have lost their last five by a combined score of 0-18. In total they’ve lost 12/15 away games this season, failing to score in 8/12 and losing at half-time in all 12.