La Liga: Silva Can Keep Sociedad at the Top

Real Sociedad vs Granada

This time last season Real Sociedad were in decent shape, holding down a fifth place in the league, they eventually finished with a Europa League spot in sixth.

But this season things have changed at the Reale Arena in San Sebastian.

Imanol Alguacil’s team starts their next game at home to Granada sitting proudly at the top of the La Liga table, ahead of champions Real Madrid by a point and on a run of five wins in six in all competitions.

Granada are five places behind, but only three points adrift of the hosts and with a game in hand.

So they will be taken very seriously by Alguacil. But there is a telling difference from the last time the two teams met in July – which is the arrival of David Silva.

Talking Points

La Real is winning big

Silva was arguably the most creative player in the Premier League over the past decade.

He enjoyed a prolific partnership with Sergio Aguero and provided countless assists for the Argentine who fired Manchester City to four league titles, and it was massive coup for Sociedad when they persuaded the mercurial midfielder to join their project in the Basque country.

With Silva pulling the strings, La Real have shown they won’t be shaken off easily in the early stages of this campaign.

They have been scoring for fun by bagging 18 goals so far, which is five more than both Real and Atletico Madrid.

During their winning run, Sociedad have beaten their last four La Liga opponents all by a three-goal margin and have only been stopped by Napoli in the Europa League.

In last week’s 4-1 win away to Celta Vigo, Silva got the ball rolling before Mikel Oyarzabal bagged his fifth goal of the campaign and Willian Jose scored a brace.

There’s no doubt that Silva has settled superbly at San Sebastian and is bringing just the quality La Real needed to become contenders.

The very latest La Liga 2020 betting odds here at SBOTOP have Sociedad as fourth favourites but way out at 41.00, with Real Madrid at 1.65, Barcelona at 4.15, and Atletico Madrid at 4.25.

The two Madrid teams and Barca have dominated for so long but Real Sociedad don’t look like a flash in the pan on current form, and a victory over a very solid Granada side will confirm their intentions.

Granada are a tough nut to crack

Having qualified for the Europa League with a seventh-placed finish, El Grana are in good shape again this term, earning 14 points from seven games with four wins and two draws.

Granada’s La Liga 2020 results are impressive for sure, but it is in defence where head coach Diego Martinez gets his big performances.

With a strong centre-back pairing of skipper German Sanchez and Portuguese Domingos Duarte, the visitors have conceded just three goals in six games in all competitions.

Back to back 1-0 wins over strong teams Sevilla and Getafe were followed by a 1-1 draw last weekend against Levante, though it would probably have been three consecutive wins had Granada kept 11 men on the pitch.

French midfielder Maxime Gonalons will be out of contention against Real Sociedad, having picked up a red card after just 16 minutes of the game when Granada were already a goal to the good.

Up front, former Spurs striker Roberto Soldado is doubtful, so there will be an opportunity for the Brazilian international Kenedy to shine.

History

In the 16 meetings between these two teams over the last decade, Sociedad have won exactly half of them, with Granada triumphing four times and there have been four draws.

When they met back in July at the end of the 2019/20 campaign, Oyarzabal thought he’d snatched a late equaliser for Sociedad. But Domingos Duarte popped up to score a late winner for Granada to make it 3-2.

Real Sociedad won the five games prior to that and they will hope to get back to winning ways. But against a side which has not lost in its last four away games, they will have to be creative.

Betting Tip

	Real Sociedad vs Granada	Real Sociedad 1X2 @ 1.73
	November 08, 23:15 (GMT+8)

With David Silva in the side you always have a chance to do something special and I think the midfield genius will have enough wizardry to open up the Granada defence.

He may have to be patient but Oyarzabal knows a chance or two will come his way.

While the draw is at 3.50 and Granada at 4.27 to win, I’m backing La Real to continue their fine form and hold on to top spot for another week at least.

The most likely score line is 1-0 at 5.80 and that makes sense against such a good defence.

But if you have faith in Silva to inspire another three-goal victory, then how about 3-0 at 14.92?