I feel we will see some considerable improvement from Granada this season, owned along with Udinese and Watford by the Pozzo family, they have managed to stabilize in the top flight after two seasons and can start to kick on. Their summer signings of defensive midfielder Manuel Iturra from Malaga with the Champions League experience he brings, Algerian international midfielder Yacine Brahimi, plus veteran strikers Riki and Piti (with 31 top flight goals between them last season) looks really good business. Unfortunately Riki cannot play today.

The final Champions League place now looks to be a straight race between Valencia and Real Sociedad and Los Che can go above Real and put huge pressure on them ahead of their midweek match with relegation haunted Granada, by winning this lunchtime kick off.

I wrote a 2,000 + word email for subscribers about the Europa League today, including a 25-1 outright selection and three match previews. I spoke about one team that I suspect might have booked the wrong training facilities, turning up at Stalag 13 instead of the Ritz ! Another who seem sure to tire badly due to the training they have done and a third where I believe one team has very questionable motivation for the match.

Serie A:

On the road, Genoa are 2-2-6, but have only conceded 13 goals, just one less than 3rd placed Lazio, they are well organised, disciplined and keep their shape well, they have performed well against the top clubs conceding just two goals and collecting five points from visits to Lazio, Udinese, Milan and Inter.

No Andrea Pirlo or Giorgio Chielleni for Juventus, who even given their resources, face a daunting 17 days with Serie A matches against Chievo and Fiorentina, a Champions League trip to Glasgow and Coppa Italia semi final against Lazio.

Massive couple of weeks on the horizon and there has never been a better time to subscribe to the clubgowi daily newsletter service. There will be two emails on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, where we will be covering a wide range of events including football  ( our bread and butter ) , golf and NFL .

We saw increased focus and motivation from Deportivo yesterday and I expect a similarly inspired showing from another relegation threatened team this evening when Mallorca, just two points off the bottom of the table, host highflying Atletico Madrid.

The New Coach effect

Massive game for Deportivo, bottom of the table three points from safety with three of their next four, including the next two away from their beautifully situated home stadium. New home coach Domingos José Paciência will be looking to impress right from the start and will have the home troops well and truly fired up for this.