Sevilla vs Deportivo Alaves 03/02/20

3 February 2020

After a shock 3-1 defeat to Mirandes in Copa del Rey, Sevilla will hope to bounce back this weekend they they lock horns with out-of-sorts Deportivo Alaves at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Sevilla’s pursuit of a top-four finish in La Liga (LL) has been compromised following their indifferent start to 2020 (W1, D1, L1) that saw their lead over fifth-placed Atletico Madrid reduced to just two points. Moreover, the Andalusian giants’ struggling to maintain consistency also witnessed them win only two of their last five LL home fixtures (D2, L1), with four of those games featuring under 2.5 goals. That could change here, considering Los Nervionenses racked up six consecutive LL home triumphs over Alaves, scoring two goals or more in all but one of those encounters. Still, for Sevilla, goals have been in short supply at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán this season, with Julen Lopetegui’s crew netting an average of only 1.3 goals per LL home match.

A poor haul of just five points from their previous seven LL outings (W1, D2, L4) has seen Alaves slip to 14th in the table, allowing relegation-threatened Celta to cut down the gap to just six points. The majority of Alaves’ problems have been widely exposed away from home, where they’ve suffered seven defeats in the last nine league games (W2). All of those results (wins/losses) during that nine-game sequence followed the same scenario – a team to break the deadlock wins the game. Additionally, 55% of those matches have seen the winner on the day keep a clean sheet. Taking into account that four of Alaves’ last five top-flight H2Hs with Sevilla witnessed the winning side (if any) shut the other one out (W1, D1, L3), opening the scoring will be of the essence here.