Elche vs Athletic Bilbao

Elche and Athletic Bilbao go head-to-head at the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero in their opening 2021/22 La Liga fixture.

Two consecutive two-goal margin victories to conclude the 2020/21 La Liga campaign, including a 2-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao on Matchday 38, helped Elche secure back-to-back top-flight seasons for the first time since 2014/15. The relegation theme is not out of the picture this time around, though, as ‘Los Franjiverdes’ last managed three successive La Liga campaigns back in 1988/99. Although a triumph here would see Elche post three top-flight wins in a row for the first time since October 2018, a run of six consecutive defeats in La Liga season-openers is unlikely to inspire the home side to another heroic display. Alarmingly, each of those six losses saw Elche fail to get on the scoresheet. In turn, Fran Escribá’s men have lost all five La Liga fixtures following back-to-back wins, drawing a blank in four of them.

In the meantime, a run of three successive defeats ‘to nil’ down the final stretch of the 2020/21 season contributed to Athletic Bilbao’s underwhelming 10th-place finish. But the visitors have never lost four consecutive La Liga matches without scoring. A 2-0 loss at Granada in last season’s La Liga opener brought Bilbao’s three-game unbeaten streak in such fixtures to a halt (W2, D1). Worryingly, a disappointing win ratio of 25% across away league matches they started as favorites in 2020/21 (W2, D2, L4) suggests ‘Los Leones’ tend to drop points in unexpected places. However, they have attained just one defeat across their last three league visits to Elche (W1, D1, L1) after losing six such encounters on the spin beforehand.