This year’s surprise package Villarreal take on last year’s top 4 contenders Malaga in what promises to be a great game of football at El Madrigal.

Nobody really expected the Yellow Submarine to be fighting for their lives upon returning to the elite division, but not even the most optimistic of fans could predict the team would be mounting a serious top 4 challenge.

Nevertheless, the reality is Villarreal have been going strong from the off and they don’t seem to be slowing down just yet.

Marcelino Garcia Toral’s men have already passed several difficult tests, easily defeating Valencia while sharing spoils with Real and Atletico, which is enough to suggest they fully deserve the current league position.

It was also impressive to see the players react in the right way to the unexpected home defeat to Getafe, with away triumphs over Elche and Levante more than enough to compensate.

As a result, the Yellow Submarine are one point clear of fifth-placed Athletic, but seven points in front of Real Sociedad, who sit in sixth place, and have an excellent opportunity to cement their top 4 position.

With Athletic facing Barcelona on Sunday evening, Villarreal look a good bet to see off out-of-sorts Malaga, at odds of 1.57 (4/7).

The hosts will have Jaume Costa back from suspension, whereas Giovani Dos Santos is also expected to play some part after recovering from injury.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Asenjo – Mario, Musacchio, Gabriel, Costa – Cani, Bruno, Trigueros, Perez – Pereira, Uche.

Malaga were always going to experience problems this season as it was clear the club did not have necessary funds to properly replace all the key players that had left in the summer.

And while the team did show signs of promise in some matches, they were pretty disappointing in others, so it is slowly becoming clear that los Boquerones will be fighting for La Liga survival just one season after narrowly missing out on the Champions League semi-finals.

Malaga have been in all sorts of problems of late, losing five of last seven league fixtures and suffering back to back defeats to Granada and Athletic.

And with Bernd Schuster’s side now facing in-form Villarreal, another defeat appears on the horizon for the La Rosaleda outfit.

Important defender Jesus Gamez returns from suspension, but now midfielder Francisco Portillo is banned having been sent off against Athletic.

Roque Santa Cruz and Roberto Chen are back in contention, but Mounir El Hamdaoui, Flavio and Jose Casado continue to miss out.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Caballero – Gamez, Sanchez, Weligton, Antunes – Tissone, Darder – Juanmi, Samu, Eliseu – Santa Cruz.