Athletic Bilbao will look to claim a first victory of the new La Liga season when they host Real Betis on Sunday.
Marcelo Bielsa arrived at Athletic Bilbao to a great deal of fanfare and the theory was that the Argentine, who had done so much with Chile, would improve the style of football at San Mames and help the Basque team to make the leap to Champions League football.
Things haven't, however, worked out like that so far this season with a disappointing 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano followed by an even more disheartening 2-1 defeat to Espanyol, in which Athletic had an incredible 17 shots on goal but were thwarted by an in-form Cristian Alvarez in the home goal.
They will look to right a few wrongs on Sunday, when Real Betis are the visitors to Bilbao and the Lions are evens, at
bet365, to come away with all three points. They have to be fancied to do so as not only did striker Fernando Llorente, who is 4/1 to open the scoring, get off the mark last season but his opposite number, Ruben Castro, who has netted in 11 of Betis's last 12 matches, is missing through injury.
That means that the visitors' goal threat will be hugely diluted, which makes them difficult to back, at odds of 11/4. Roque Santa Cruz (13/2) is yet to prove that he can be relied upon, after a tough time at Manchester City, and Jorge Molina is fairly erratic.
That should make things much easier for Athletic's defenders on Sunday and adventurous punters are advised to take the 12/5 that the home side win without conceding as, not only will Bielsa be keen to see his side keep a clean sheet, but Real Betis are without the player who has scored all of their La Liga goals this term.
Recommendation
Win to Nil - Atheltic Bilbao (12/5,
bet365)
