while we love the drama of the premier league, there’s no doubt that spain has a monopoly on the world’s top stars. at least, they did until neymar upped sticks to psg this summer. that’s only added more intrigue to la liga this season, as that money burns a hole in barca’s pocket. will they splash the cash and try to dethrone real as spanish champions?
barcelona to kick off life without neymar
barcelona have been rocked by neymar’s move, but it’s not like the catalans have been dealt a killer blow. their front three is now being rounded out by everton reject gerard deulofeu, which suggests that they’re on the hunt for a new signing. however, that shouldn’t stop them from rolling over betis in their opening game of the new season.
while barca are lacking a little up front, we do see them being solid going forward this season. it’s hard to ignore the fact that betis lost to nil in four of their six trips to the top six sides. they are going to struggle for possession, and we can see barca getting a clean sheet out of this one. we’re predicting a win to nil for barcelona, which is priced at odds of 19/20 with ladbrokes. that’s quite a boost from their 1/10 price on the win market, so we think it’s worth taking.
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real madrid away on opening weekend
champions real madrid are in a commanding position, and they’ve been able to laugh at the footballing world this summer. after pocketing incredible sums for their bench players, they’re now looking at barcelona losing their best player and rejoicing. after a win at the camp nou, everything is going their way. the only issue is cristiano ronaldo’s suspension, but they have enough spare talent to cope in the short term.
real are widely expected to dispatch deportivo, and we can’t see them slipping up in this clash. however, they did concede away to five of the bottom six last season, while they conceded in 74% of their trips. we don’t see real keeping a clean sheet here, so we’re backing real and both teams to score in this clash, which can be backed at 7/4 with coral. given that they were around 4/11 to claim the points, that’s a huge jump considering the champions were far from solid on their travels last season.
how will atletico fare after their transfer troubles?
atletico madrid are in an interesting position in spain, having started the summer with dreams of an incredible frontline. they were after alexandre lacazette and diego costa, until their transfer ban was upheld and they’ve been left unable to make signings.
they’ve kept their key players, but there’s certainly been questions about atleti’s ability to compete going forward. they don’t have an attacking trio to match their fellow top sides this year, but they still have an incredible defence, and a remarkable knack of winning matches by the odd goal.
that was obvious on their travels last term, with almost 70% of atletico’s trips finishing with under 2.5 goals scored. while they’re playing a newly promoted side and expected to go goal crazy, we see another tight game for the visitors. teams are starting to trouble atletico by matching them and playing deep, and there’s little diego simeone has been able to do to counter that. that’s why we’re going with under 2.5 goals for our tip on this one, which is best priced at nice odds of 4/5 with sky bet.
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