La Liga Preview: Can Real Madrid Reignite Their Faltering Title Bid?

Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad

Real Madrid's title hopes suffered a huge blow against Osasuna and Barcelona rubbed salt into their wounds by winning once again on Saturday. It would also mean that if Real Madrid suffered yet another defeat, they could be a massive 10-point gap between the two rivals.

Even though they did claim a victory against Sevilla in the Copa Del Rey semifinals, it seems that they are well and truly out of the contention for the La Liga title.

Real Sociedad seem to have finally picked up their form in the Spanish League and they have erased their recent three consecutive defeats with two victories in their last three matches.

It is the kind of form that has put them once again into the top half of the table and they will be looking to remain there. José Mourinho will have been extremely pleased to see new signing Emmanuel Adebayor score on his debut for Real Madrid.

He could well replace Karim Benzema against Real Sociedad. Also, José Mourinho has said that he is not worrying about Cristiano Ronaldo’s form after the winger has failed to find the net in his past four matches.


Valencia vs Hercules

The early season form of Hercules seems to be slipping away after they have been defeated heavily in the past three matches. It certainly does not come as a surprise as many predicted that Hercules will be struggling this season.

Similarly, it is also not a surprise to find Valencia to be challenging for the Champions League places. It seems that they have gone past the Catalan club Espanyol as the favourites for the position after Espanyol lost a number of players in the transfer window.

Valencia are now only four points behind Villarreal in the third position and Unai Emery will be looking to close the gap on Villarreal.

Hercules have been struggling with a lot of injuries of late and this situation does not seem to have improved in time for the Valencia game after Esteban Vigo’s side are still missing a number of key players.

Jonas Goncalves could make his debut for Valencia after signing in the recently closed transfer window. Ricardo Costa and David Navarro are the only two absentees for Unai Emery to deal with. A victory will put his side just a point behind Villarreal and one cannot have a better motivation for winning.


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