Europe's 'cutest' visitor
The blue and whites are the team with the fewest points away from home in the five major European leagues and one of the few that have yet to win away from home.
BarcelonaEspanyol are not doing well away from home. Travelling is a thorn in the side of the blue and whites, who on Saturday will have another chance at Mendizorrotza (2pm, M. LaLiga TV) to stop being not only the most tender visitor in La Liga, but also in the five major European leagues. They have only two points out of a possible 33, the same as Bochum, second from bottom in the Bundesliga, and Saint-Étienne, third from bottom in Ligue 1. Even the bottom of the league, Valladolid, has one more point away from home.
They are also one of the five clubs in the European Big 5 that do not know what it is like to win away from home, a curse that they hope to break in Vitoria. They have only drawn twice, obtained in difficult fields such as those of Atlético de Madrid and Sevilla. The rest, nine defeats, some especially painful, such as those obtained in the fields of direct rivals in the fight for permanence, such as Valladolid, Getafe and Las Palmas.
Obstacles that cause that there is only one team – out of a total of 178 – in the ten national leagues with the highest UEFA coefficient with fewer points away from home than Espanyol: Beerschot VA, bottom of the Belgian league, and who are only playing their third season in the elite. Espanyol's poor record away from home is significantly diminishing the performance of Manolo González's team in this League. If they do not correct it in the eight trips that remain, the parakeets will have the worst season away from home since victories in the League are rewarded with three points, the 1995-96 season.
Until now, the worst away scores were 9 points in 2001-02 and 11 in 2009-10 and 2015-16. That is to say, they would have to add at least seven points to at least equal the lowest away record of the last 30 years. The calendar, a priori, offers some options, since except for Villarreal, next week's opponent, Espanyol will visit opponents from the middle and lower zone in the final stretch of the League: Alavés, Mallorca, Rayo Vallecano, Celta, Valencia, Leganés and Osasuna.
This year's worrying record only consolidates a trend: Espanyol have been losing strength as visitors since their first full season under Chen Yansheng: they finished 2016-17 with 27 points, more than double the 11 of the previous season. However, since then, year after year they have been lowering the records obtained in Primera: 19 in 2017-18, 17 in 2018-19, 13 in 2019-20 and 9 in 2021-22. The 18 in 2022-23 was the only exception to a decline that continues this year.
A fall that has placed Espanyol as one of the worst visiting teams in the League in the last five seasons that it has played in the top flight. The white and blues are the team with the fewest wins since then, eleven, and only have more points (59) than four teams, which, however, have been in the Second Division in one of these five years: 58 for Rayo, 53 for Valladolid and 48 for Mallorca and Alavés.
The League's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Espanyol's weakness away from home contrasts with their good performance at the RCDE Stadium. In fact, if only home points counted, the Blanquiazules would have a serious chance of competing in European competitions, because they would be seventh with 22 points, just one less than the 23 of Celta and Osasuna, and in two of the top four in the League: 24 Madrid 3 and 2, 2 and 2, 2 and 2, 3 and 2, 2, and 3, and 3, and 2, and 2, and 2, and 2, 2, and 2, 2, and 2, 2, and 2, 2, and 2, 2 and 2, 25 to 2, 25 to Madrid It is not without paradox that one of the four draws that the colchoneros have signed at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano is, precisely, against Espanyol. Real Sociedad, Villarreal and Sevilla are the only clubs to have left Cornellà-El Prat with all three points this season.