Paul Higham fancies some yellow card action for Granada in their trip to Espanyol for Saturday’s props column’s best bet…
It’s off to Spain on Saturday afternoon as Espanyol host Granada in a battle of two sides who still have work to do to try and drag themselves away from the relegation zone.
The hosts sit in 11th, only four points off the drop zone, yet they’re only six points off a European place in what is a tight La Liga table so far this season.
Granada have been on what for them is a great run of form recently with an unbeaten streak of four games containing their only two league wins of the season so far.
That includes a 3-0 away victory at Levante last time out, and they’ll need another solid away performance to end Espanyol’s four-game unbeaten run at home, which includes a win against Real Madrid as one of their three victories.
Granada also won 3-0 the last time they played an away game at Espanyol.
There’s not too much between them in terms of goals scored and conceded but one area that separates these two teams is their discipline, with Espanyol only seeing 25 yellow cards compared with Granada’s tally of 37 – despite them playing a game less!
Only one team in La Liga has a higher average than Granada’s 3.36 bookings per game, which is exactly the same mark as renowned Spanish bad boys Atletico Madrid.
Away from home Granada have been especially feisty in recent weeks, picking up 13 bookings in their last three games on the road – and they can easily keep up with that average in Espanyol.
With the hosts being as solid as they have been at home, it’ll be tough work for Granada and that fiery temper within this squad can see them having a few players noted down in the referee’s notebook.
Four bookings is by no means out of the question.
Source: Betfair Spanish La Liga
