La Liga: Madrid Bandwagon Heads to the Basque

Real Sociedad vs Real Madrid

Real Madrid’s La Liga title push heads to the Reale Arena in San Sebastian on Saturday where former league leaders Real Sociedad will be waiting.

The two teams are currently heading in opposite directions. While the hosts have recently handed over top spot and are sitting in third, the visitors have just opened up a handy seven-point gap at the summit of the league table.

Los Blancos come into the game on the back of a 1-0 home win against Athletic Bilbao while Sociedad lost 1-0 away to Espanyol last Sunday before a much changed line-up comfortably beat Segunda RFEF side Panaderia Pulido on Wednesday night.

The hosts will try to build on that small success, but the Los Blancos’ bandwagon is beginning to gather some serious momentum and it might be too hard to stop.

Talking Points

Are Sociedad on the slide?

It’s far too early to write off the Sociedad challenge but head coach Imanol Iguacil must be concerned by his team’s stuttering La Liga 2021 results lately.

Going into their midweek Copa match, Sociedad were are without a win in three games, drawing in La Liga at home to Valencia before losing away to Monaco in the Champions League and then they came up against a rock-solid Espanyol defence in the 1-0 defeat in Catalonia.

Aritz Elustondo has scored 3 goals in 4 La Liga matches — Aritz Elustondo was red cared for violent conduct during Sociedad’s 0-0 draw with Valencia

Defender Aritz Elustondo has been a key figure. He’s an assured defender and a threat going forward with three goals this campaign but he’ll be missing for this mega clash.

Elustondo received a red card for violent conduct in a 0-0 draw with Valencia, reacting to a foul on him by Daniel Wass and he’s sidelined for this one, though he captained La Real in their 4-0 Copa del Rey victory over Panaderia Pulido on Wednesday.

Imanol Alguacil rested some key players including top scorer Mikel Oyarzabal who took his place on the bench alongside Alexander Isak and Adnan Januzaj, and all three will return to the starting lineup on Saturday. But the hosts will also be without the influential midfielder David Silva.

So some of Sociedad’s star players have the advantage of almost a full week to prepare while Real Madrid’s first 11 played on Wednesday and La Real will be hoping to bounce back from those two recent defeats which ended a 17-match unbeaten run.

They are not on the slide just yet, but Los Blancos could give them an unhelpful nudge.

Benzema’s steely focus

The early season La Liga 2021 betting odds have shifted towards the white half of Madrid, currently pricing Los Blancos at 1.44 and head coach Carlo Ancelotti must be delighted by the form of his star striker Karim Benzema despite the Frenchman’s off-field distractions.

Benzema has been implicated in a smutty plot to discredit former France team-mate Mathieu Valbuena, but that circus has affected his on-field form not one bit.

He was on target again to give Madrid a hard-fought win over Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday, a result which propelled his team seven points ahead of Atletico Madrid though Los Rojiblancos have a game in hand, while Barcelona are struggling to make headway under their new boss Xavi and are currently seventh.

At SBOTOP odds of 1.53, Karim Benzema is the man to beat in the race for the Golden Boot as the Frenchman has 12 goals and seven assists already, though his strike partner Vinicius Junior is one of the men in the hunt at a price of 11.00.

The young Brazilian star has nine goals to his name and Marco Asensio is in fine form too. Asensio has four goals and almost made it five against Bilbao, but keeper Unai Simon parried his shot and Benzema swept home his eighth goal in seven matches in all competitions.

History

Los Blancos have won 29 of the last 52 encounters with Sociedad dating back to 1993, while La Real have won 12 and drawn 11.

The recent head-to-heads have been more evenly shared though, with two wins each and two draws over the past three seasons.

Both matches were drawn in the 2020/21 campaign. Silva made his Sociedad debut in a 0-0 stalemate at the Reale Arena and then the two teams shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw in Madrid, where Vinicius marked his 100^th appearance for Los Blancos with an 89^th -minute equaliser.

Sociedad have stuttered recently but are unbeaten at home in the league with four wins and three draws, while Real Madrid are now unbeaten in 10 – having won the last seven.

Betting Tip

	Real Sociedad vs Real Madrid	Total Goals 2-3 @ 1.89
	December 05, 04:00 (GMT+8)

Real Madrid are marginal favourites to win this game at a price of 2.16, while Sociedad are at odds of 3.20 and the draw is at 3.11.

It’s a tough call to make. Los Blancos have the momentum, but the big match atmosphere in a packed stadium might push the hosts on to higher levels than in recent weeks.

I can see a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 away win in an all-action tussle.