"Yellow Submarine Villarreal will return home on Sunday afternoon to face an underperforming Almería in a bid to salvage back-to-back defeats in Spain's top flight. Villarreal are in 15th place in La Liga with three points from their first four matches of the season, while Almeria are in 19th place with only one point.
Villarreal sacked manager Cetin after a 3-1 loss at Cádiz in a match before the International Match Day, and the team had lost three of their first four league games, leading to the decision to change the coach. Real Madrid Castilla's owner Raul had been rumored to be linked with the managerial post, but 55-year-old Pacheta, who had returned to La Liga in April after losing his job at Real Valladolid, was named the new manager.
Villarreal's only win this season was a 1-0 victory in Mallorca on August 18th, and they lost at home against both Real Betis and Real Madrid, in addition to falling 3-1 against Cádiz earlier this month. The Yellow Submarine will begin their Europa League group stage campaign next week, where they will also face Rennes and Maccabi Haifa in an open Group F. Villarreal are fifth in Spain's top flight, which is certainly better than they were at the start of the season, and a win against Almeria could act as a stepping stone for the next few weeks.
Almeria lost both of their La Liga matches to Villarreal last season, and the fact that they have not beaten Sunday's opponents in Spain's highest division since May 2010 shows just how tough a task they have. Union barely avoided relegation in La Liga last season as they finished 17th in the table, a point above 18th-placed Real Valladolid, and early indications are that it could be another tough season. Indeed, Moreno's men have picked up just one point from their opening four games, which has left them in 19th place, with only Sevilla doing worse than them.
Almeria drew 1-1 against Cádiz on August 26, but they lost 3-2 at home to Celta Vigo before International Day.UDA recovered from a two-goal deficit through Akimé and Arribas to level the game, but Celta Vigo scored the winning goal in the 87th minute of the match.
Villarreal will miss the game on Sunday due to the suspension of Alfonso Pedraza, the Spaniard who was shown a straight red card in the first half of their last match against Cádiz. Alberto Moreno and Francis Coquelin are also unavailable due to injury, while Ben Breton-Diaz and Alexandre Solos face deadlines for fitness checks.
As for Almeria, Martin Swidelski is out for a long time due to a knee injury. The visitors are otherwise in good shape in terms of their squad, with Edgar Gonzalez available again after last sitting out the defeat against Celta through suspension. Gonzalez should be back in the defense, while there could be two further changes, with Dion Loppi and Arribas both likely to start from the bench after last time out.
Score Prediction: Villarreal 2-1 Almeria There could be a lot of nerves in the Villarreal camp going into this game, but it's a benign matchup for the Yellow Submarines as their opponents sit below them in the table. We expect this game to be very close, but we're backing Villarreal to come out of the blocks with an important win.
