Athletic Club v Real Sociedad Betting Tips
Last season, Athletic Club qualified for the Champions League by finishing fourth in La Liga. They claimed eleven wins from their nineteen home matches, averaging two points per top-flight clash to finish ahead of Villarreal, Real Betis and Celta Vigo. However, it looks as though they're unlikely to emulate that achievement this time around.
At present, Ernesto Valverde's side are averaging barely more than a point per match. They are really short of goals considering that ten have been managed at San Mames, with the last domestic win being a 1-0 La Liga success over Atletico Madrid. It's been tough going in the Champions League too where the team will hope to make further progress.
Therefore, we can't be too confident that Athletic Club will land a victory in this weekend clash. They will have faced Sporting at home a few days earlier and it's clear that the European campaign has had a detrimental effect on form in La Liga. They have also come off the back of six successive away games which will have had a tiring effect.
Sociedad have been in better form recently. Since losing 2-1 at home to Girona on 12 December, there have been four wins and three draws in the past seven encounters. There have also been some notable victories including a 2-1 win against Barcelona where goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Goncalo Guedes helped them to a famous victory.
We can't help but lean towards the visitors at the prices. They might have struggled to win games on the road this season but a lot of their bad results on the road came earlier in the campaign. Therefore, we think that you can either back Sociedad or alternatively go for them and the Draw, taking two options on the Double Result market.
Goals Under/Over
Under 2.5 Goals is trading at odds-on, with the La Liga betting sites giving this a roughly 60% chance of happening. Athletic Club's home games have not generally featured a large number of goals. There have been twenty-one scored across ten games at San Mames, with the home side only mustering ten compared to the visitors accumulating eleven.
However, it's worth noting that their past five matches in all competitions have gone over the 2.5 goal line. They were all away from home with the exception of a 5-0 thrashing by Barcelona in the Super Cup. Previously to this, they lost 2-1 at home to Espanyol although their games against Atletico Madrid and PSG were low-scoring.
Sociedad's past four games have been Over 2.5 and perhaps that is where the value lies. They've scored at least two goals in all of these encounters.
BTTS
You have to go back to Sociedad's 1-0 defeat at Alaves to find the last time that they were involved in a BTTS No match. Since then, Pellegrino Matarazzo's side have been involved in eight consecutive BTTS Yes matches. Three of these have been on the road, including 2-1 victories at Eldense and Getafe, with a 1-1 draw at Levante also occurring.
The bookies make it a toss-up between BTTS Yes and BTTS No, although we're leaning towards the former. Even if Athletic Club games at home haven't featured a large number of goals on average. The past seven Athletic matches have all been BTTS Yes and some of them really high-scoring including a 3-2 Champions League success away to Atalanta.
Even a recent 2-1 defeat at Sevilla saw Athletic manage three shots on target after previously scoring with all three of their shots on target in Italy. Both sides seem to be in good form when it comes to taking their chances. The bookies are basing their odds on the possibility that the sides might cancel each other out, although both are likely to be going for the win and playing attacking football.
First Goalscorer
Mikel Oyarzabal has been a reliable source of goals for Real Sociedad and the striker has come into some excellent form recently. The Spanish international scored recently as part of his team's 2-1 win over Barcelona and then bagged a recent brace against Celta Vigo to help the side enjoy a 3-1 victory. That makes it fourteen for the season, with the player previously in good form for his country when bagging a brace in Georgia and another against Turkey.
Brais Mendez is another forward who has been on the scoresheet a couple of times recently for Real Sociedad, with Goncalo Guedes now on five for the season. The former Wolves player equalised against Atletico Madrid and also found the net against Barcelona as part of that excellent win.
For Athletic Club, Gorka Guruzeta has scored four goals across the past five games, with the latest of these being a strike against Atalanta in the Champions League. Robert Navarro has scored in consecutive matches and the former Mallorca player has six for the season, with Nico Williams a talented operator who will be looking to boost his current goal tally that stands at four.