- Elche have won three of their last five LaLiga fixtures with two defeats.
- Deportivo Alaves have won only one of their last five in LaLiga, drawing two and losing two.
- Elche have won eight of their 17 home LaLiga fixtures this season, drawing seven and losing only two.
Entertaining encounter on the cards at Martinez Valero
Elche can get the better of Alaves in an open contest at the Martínez Valero on Saturday when a mid-table side and a side near the relegation zone meet in a clash of contrasting styles. Elche are 14th in LaLiga with 38 points from 34 games while Deportivo are 18th with 36 and still at risk of being dragged into the relegation dogfight.
Sarabia’s style has been to implement a free-flowing possession game with fluid rotations, wide overloads and coordinated pressing since taking over as Elche coach in July 2024. Elche have been a very positive side throughout the campaign, with Javier Pastore adding the creativity and control in the middle of the park to underpin their possession-based play.
They are capable of controlling territory and tempo, but have a few too many individuals that can take a game away from them when things don’t go to plan. This clash of Elche’s width and fluid ball movement against Alaves’ compactness and set-piece threat should be a good one.
Alaves are defensively stronger, but not much of a threat away from home
The Babazorros have a solid defensive base to build from with Quique Sanchez Flores, who took over in March 2026, stressing compact blocks, counters and set-piece strength. Antonio Martinez leads the scoring charts with 11 goals from 33 LaLiga appearances, but has not been a regular starter, scoring four times in the last five.
Alaves have been poor travellers in 2025-2026, winning only three of their 17 away fixtures, with 11 losses. They have failed to win their last two away matches, managing only a draw and a defeat.
Elche’s form has been good at home with two straight wins in their latest games and 1.65 goals per game on average at the Martinez Valero, where they have scored 28 times. Andre Silva, who has ten goals in 27 games, is leading the attack and has scored three times in their last five.
Jon Guridi provides the steel and energy in the Alaves midfield and can get things going in transition or from set pieces. But there is nothing impressive about their away record, having scored just 17 times in 17 games, so back Elche to get the three points at 2.34. Both teams should score with odds of 1.65, but it’s worth noting the 1.94 on over 2.5 goals too because this should be an open game between two evenly-matched teams.
