Villarreal v Sevilla Preview – Saturday May 2nd

By: Anthony | May 2nd, 2009

These past few weeks have been frustrating ones for our star striker Frédéric Kanouté who hasn’t scored a goal in any of our four successive defeats. After a run of fine form where big Fredi lit up the stage in almost every stadium across Spain, we have now lost four in a row and hold onto third by only a single point ahead of a resurgent Valencia side.

Today we travel to El Madrigal to take on a Villarreal side who currently sit in fifth place, one point behind Valencia for that fourth and final Champions League spot and two points behind us for third place in the league. This match is the end of our death run which included matches against Barça, Real, Valencia and now the Yellow Submarine. A win is going to be crucial because the matches to close out the season are pretty favourable for us as opposed to Villarreal and Valencia who still have to play the top teams in the league as well as each other.

Not only have we been abysmal of late but Villarreal have been suffering as well. A mere 4 points from their past 5 games have seen the Yellow Submarine drop out of fourth place but a win today can change all that. If we lose and Valencia picks up at least a draw against Espanyol we would see ourselves drop out of the top four for the first time since November 29th, 2008.

Luckily enough for us, Villarreal will be missing some of the key players in their squad due to injury. With Santi Cazorla, Marcos Senna and Guille Franco out hurt, this will no doubt leave a few holes in the midfield which we must capitalize on. There is no doubt that Senna is a massively influential figure in the middle of the park and not having him is a huge blow for Manuel Pelligrini.

I guess not all is good for us either as Acosta, Fazio, and Chevantón are out with injuries and Romaric is suspended for the match due to an accumulation of yellow cards.

It will be key to get Kanouté the service he needs as without him scoring we look very boring up front as Fabiano isn’t exactly on the top of his game either. Capel played well last week when he came off the bench so it will be interesting to see if Jiménez starts the Spanish youth international against our new prodigy Diego Perotti who has brushed aside Capel in the pecking order.

Regardless of injuries, suspensions, or whatever other little facts surround this match, there is no doubt that it is a must win for both sides which will make it one to watch. Both teams need this victory to even hope of making the Champions League next year and a loss will probably still see them playing in Europe but rather in the Europa League.