Having continued the rich vein of form with an impressive away win over Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao are looking to keep their top 6 chances alive with another comfortable win. Granada, on the other hand, sit rock bottom after their clash with Mallorca was suspended last weekend and they will have to play a perfect game in order to avoid defeat at San Mames.

This is real Athletic!

With Marcelo Bielsa arriving to San Mames to replace Joaquin Caparros and plenty of talent within the ranks, Athletic Bilbao were always going to have a major role to play in La Liga this season, but not everything went according to plan in the early stage of the season. The players needed some time to get used to El Loco Bielsa, whereas the European exploits also prevented los Leones from giving their all in La Liga. However, the 2:0 victory over newly rich Paris Saint-Germain seems to have helped the team return to the right track and Marcelo Bielsa’s men have been in scintillating form ever since. With all players working as one and transmitting the coach’s demands onto the pitch, Athletic embarked on a remarkable run of results that saw them beat sides like Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla, while outplaying mighty Barcelona in the process. The away win over Sevilla at the weekend was just an icing on the cake, but Marcelo Bielsa is aware that his side need to continue the rich vein of form and has spent entire week warning his players against complacency before the Granada game. That kind of approach is likely to result in another convincing performance at the Cathedral, so home win should never come into question.

Javi Martinez is likely to miss out through a groin problem, whereas Ander Iturraspe should return to the starting line-up.

Granada are improving

Granada produced quite a coup by gaining promotion to Spanish top flight, and understanding the need to reinforce the squad in order to have any chance to avoiding the drop, the club chiefs managed to sign a hots of new players. While the arrivals of Carlos Martins, Fran Rico, Hassan Yebda, Pape Diakhate and others certainly improved the quality of the squad, they also made life difficult for coach Fabri Gonzalez, who needed to make the team gel without falling too far behind the other relegation rivals. Granada have been pretty disappointing in the early stage of the La Liga campaign, although they have shown some improvement lately and are close to finally leaving the bottom three. While the team have played pretty well at home, they have been utterly disappointing on the travels, losing all four away games before the shock win over Sevilla, so there are no doubts Granada are set to struggle at one of the most difficult grounds in Spain.

Important defenders Mainz and Siqueira are likely to miss out, whereas Dani Benitez and Fran Rico could play a part after recovering from injury.

Verdict

Athletic Bilbao are on top of their game at the moment and they are very convincing at their San Mames. Seeing that not even mighty Barcelona could survive their early pressure at the Cathedral, we cannot really expect bottom-table Granada to fare any better. Los Leones should be able to record a comfortable win here.

Our prediction: Athletic Bilbao with -1.5 Asian handicap

Odds: 2.35 (27/20)

Bookmaker: 188BET