A tough one to call in El Madrigal

Villarreal CF and RCD Espanyol meet each other on Thursday night for a top half of the table clash. With five matches already played this season, both teams are yet to be beaten and have accumulated 11 points each, thanks to three wins and two draws a piece. Marcelino Garcia Toral's team holds a one goal advantage over the Catalan side, but apart from that both teams are very evenly matched.

After gaining promotion, the Yellow Submarine has been one of the revelations of the season so far, not only in terms of the positive results they have been picking up, but the manner in which they have been doing so. However, Javier Aguirre's Espanyol are no slouches either, and the 'Basque' has got his fighting spirit across to his players, making them a difficult opponent for any side. Los Preciados will be without Juan Fuentes on Thursday though.

"We are going to make changes because we have three matches in the space of seven days and our squad is deep enough to allow us to. There won't be too many changes because that would unsettle the team, but there will be a few tweaks. When I talk about changes, it could be anywhere between two to five players", Marcelino said.

Meanwhile, the visiting side’s coach announced during his pre-match press conference that there will be at least "four changes" and clarified that he "will rotate the squad. The reason some will be left out is because they have already played a lot and its good to rest up during the week in order to be fresh for the following match". Speaking about the match, the Mexican coach said, "It will be a tough match but I am confident we can get a positive result".