Granada vs Espanyol Preview

Espanyol full-back Anaitz Arbilla says his team want to erase the memory of their disappointing display against Barcelona and “start again from scratch” when they play Granada on Thursday.

The Catalans may have only lost 2-0 to their bitter local rivals on Saturday but they barely created any chances despite being at home, and were at times played off the park by the visitors. Arbilla admits the players were particularly disappointed with their display.

“We did not give a very good showing of ourselves, because we all expected to give more but we weren’t able to have any possession or press them high up the pitch, but you have to congratulate our opponents because they were better than us,” he told a press conference.

“We need to forget about the game, move on and start again from scratch.”

The trip to the Nuevo Los Carmenes stadium offers Espanyol the chance to do exactly that, against the club one off the bottom of the Primera Division table. Then the Catalans will host Rayo Vallecano next Sunday, and Arbilla says victory in both games is paramount if his side want to keep up their fight to pip Malaga to seventh place and have a chance of qualifying for the Europa League.

“Our objective hinges upon winning those two games, just like we did two weeks ago, and we should be confident, because I think we can beat them,” he said.

Espanyol coach Sergio Gonzalez has close to a full strength squad for the trip down south, with just the injured Felipe Mattioni and the suspended Hector Moreno unavailable,.

His opposite number Abel Resino has a much longer injury list, and will be without Eddy Silvestre, Jeison Murillo, Javi Marquez, Emanuel Insua and Juan Carlos Perez.

The 4-0 thumping Granada suffered at Valencia on Monday saw them join Rayo Vallecano as the team with the worst defence in the league, and time is running out for them, as they are four points from safety with just five games remaining.