Although Elche have made an encouraging start upon their return to the Spanish top flight, the Friday night’s hosts will arguably face their biggest test yet in this new campaign when they entertain Valencia at their Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero.
Elche may well have been fearing the worst after being handed a heavy 3-0 defeat at home against Real Sociedad on the opening day of the new La Liga season but the hosts have since steadied the ship with wins against Eibar and Deportivo Alaves, along with a point in a draw with Huesca.
Incidentally, Elche are still waiting to record their first win of the season on home turf though as both of their aforementioned wins were collected on their travels, and as the upcoming visitors on Friday night are Valencia, there’s no guarantees of an Elche home win here either.
It’s been five seasons since Elche last appeared in the Spanish top flight but they won’t have too many happy memories from that campaign as it not only ended in relegation but they also suffered heavy defeats against Valencia in 3-1 and 4-0 losses respectively.
Onto Valencia then, and the visitors have made a fairly average start to this new La Liga season as they’ve managed to pick up just two wins from their opening six matches of this new domestic top flight campaign.
An opening day 4-2 home win against Levante held much promise for Valencia but they’ve managed to register just one further win from their subsequent five matches, which came in the shape of a 1-0 win on the road at Real Sociedad.
Defeats to Celta Vigo, Real Betis and last weekend’s defeat at Villarreal have been disappointing setbacks for a Valencia outfit who harbour ambitions of a top six finish this season following last season’s under-par finish of 9th place, although last term was cut short.
If Valencia are to become serious challengers for a top six spot, then the visitors will have to make a dramatic improvement upon results away from home as they’ve managed to pick up just one win out of their last 14 matches on their travels in La Liga.
Valencia’s one saving grace is that they’ve beaten Elche in each of the previous three encounters and they’ll be eyeing off another three points against their hosts on Friday night.
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