Both teams are favorites here in my opinion.

ATHLETIC - VALENCIA

Athletic has a great chance to deliver a solid performance here. They are coming off a draw against Getafe where they played poorly, followed by another subpar performance against Barcelona. Expectations were high for this team, as they were among the main favorites to reach the top four.

For this fixture, their best player, Nico Williams, is doubtful and could be replaced by Berenguer or Djaló.

Athletic is a very strong home team that plays with a lot of intensity and pressure on their home turf. We didn’t see that against Getafe, but I expect a change here and a better performance. This is partly because Getafe played at a very slow pace, whereas Valencia is the opposite and also has a much weaker defense.

Valencia is a young team with a terrible squad this season due to the lack of good reinforcements. Their defense is dreadful; they have conceded five goals in two games and have been very easy to beat.

Furthermore, I see Valencia in a really poor physical condition. Around the 60th minute, they look exhausted, lacking pace, and they don’t have the bench depth to increase or even maintain the rhythm.

I expect Athletic to dominate this game and create a lot of chances. Valencia’s defense isn’t capable of keeping a clean sheet, and they will likely struggle physically if Athletic imposes a high pace and good rhythm, as they typically do at home. After seeing Valencia’s performance in their previous game and considering their pace, along with the fact that this is a week with three games in seven days, I don’t see them being able to maintain a competitive performance for more than 50-60 minutes.

Athletic also has a much better and deeper squad to manage this midweek round and the rotations.

REAL SOCIEDAD - ALAVES

This is a similar case: a strong team that has underperformed so far and is now playing at home against a team that should be easy to beat (at least on paper).

Real Sociedad has lost some key players in the transfer market (Mikel Merino, Le Normand), but they have made good transfers to replace them and still have a very strong squad that should be competing for a top-five finish.

They are coming off two poor performances: a 1-2 home defeat against Rayo Vallecano and a fortunate 1-0 victory against Espanyol. In neither game have we seen the level of performance that we are used to from them in previous seasons.

Physically, they are a strong team that might need some time to reach their best form. That’s strange because usually they always make a very strong start of the season and they finish the campaigns exhausted.

One of their best players, Take Kubo (who scored the winning goal against Espanyol), should start today, as he was a reserve in the previous game.

They have a deep squad with enough quality to manage this game and the midweek round with rotations.

On the other hand, Alavés is coming off two poor performances as well. They have a short squad and are weak on the road, so I expect them to struggle here. They are lacking quality up front, especially now that they have lost one of their best players, winger Rioja, who has been signed by Valencia.

More rotations are expected here, including winger Carlos Vicente (who has been great so far) and Connechy, while their new signing—striker Toni Martinez, who is expected to be very important this season—isn’t available yet.

The difference in quality is significant, and although we haven't seen the real level of Real Sociedad yet, they should have a clear physical advantage here due to the squad depth difference. Last season, they beat Alavés 1-0 away, while at home they drew 1-1 due to an early red card to goalkeeper Remiro at the 30-minute mark.

在我看来，这两支球队都是最受欢迎的。

竞技-瓦伦西亚

竞技有很好的机会在这里表现出色。他们刚刚在对阵赫塔菲的比赛中表现不佳，然后又在对阵巴塞罗那的比赛中表现不佳。人们对这支球队的期望很高，因为他们是进入前四的主要热门之一。

在这场比赛中，他们最好的球员尼科·威廉姆斯的位置尚不确定，可能会被贝伦格尔或Djaló取代。

竞技是一支非常强大的主场球队，在他们的主场打得非常激烈和有压力。我们在对阵赫塔菲的比赛中没有看到这一点，但我希望这里会有变化，表现会更好。这部分是因为赫塔菲踢得非常慢，而瓦伦西亚则相反，防守也弱得多。

瓦伦西亚是一支年轻的球队，由于缺乏好的增援，本赛季的阵容很糟糕。他们的防御是可怕的;他们在两场比赛中丢了5个球，很容易被击败。

此外，我认为瓦伦西亚的身体状况非常糟糕。在第60分钟左右，他们看起来很疲惫，缺乏节奏，他们没有板凳深度来增加甚至保持节奏。

我希望竞技队能主宰这场比赛，创造很多机会。瓦伦西亚的防守没有能力保持零封，如果竞技施加高速度和良好的节奏，他们可能会在身体上挣扎，就像他们在主场所做的那样。看了瓦伦西亚上一场比赛的表现，考虑到他们的节奏，再加上这一周7天有3场比赛，我不认为他们能在50-60分钟内保持有竞争力的表现。

在周中的比赛和轮换中，竞技也有一个更好更有深度的阵容。

真正的社会主义者

这是一个类似的例子:一支迄今表现不佳的强队，现在正在主场对阵一支应该很容易击败的球队(至少在纸面上)。

皇家社会在转会市场上失去了一些关键球员(米克尔·梅里诺，勒·诺曼)，但他们已经进行了很好的转会来取代他们，并且仍然拥有一支非常强大的阵容，应该能够争夺前五名。

他们刚刚经历了两场糟糕的比赛:主场1-2输给巴列卡诺，1-0战胜西班牙人。在这两场比赛中，我们都没有看到他们在前几个赛季的表现水平。

从身体上来说，他们是一支强大的球队，可能需要一些时间才能达到最佳状态。这很奇怪，因为他们通常在赛季开始时都很强势，但在赛季结束时却筋疲力尽。

他们最好的球员之一久保(在对阵西班牙人的比赛中打进致胜一球)今天应该首发，因为他在上一场比赛中是替补。

他们有足够的阵容来应付这场比赛和周中轮换的比赛。

另一方面，alavsamis也经历了两次糟糕的表现。他们的阵容很短，在客场也很弱，所以我希望他们在这里会很挣扎。他们在锋线上缺乏实力，尤其是在他们失去了最好的球员之一，被瓦伦西亚签下的边锋里奥哈之后。

更多的轮换预计将在这里，包括边锋卡洛斯·维森特(迄今为止表现出色)和康涅希，而他们的新签约前锋托尼·马丁内斯，预计在本赛季非常重要，还没有到位。

实力上的差异是显著的，尽管我们还没有看到皇家社会的真正水平，但由于阵容深度的差异，他们在身体上应该有明显的优势。上个赛季，他们在客场1-0击败了alav<s:1>，而在主场，由于守门员雷米罗在开场30分钟就被红牌罚下，他们1-1战平。