REMEMBER Terry Gibson? Well, we've signed him and while he won't be kicking a football he'll be looking into his crystal ball and bringing us his best Spanish tips every week.
The ex-Spurs, Coventry and Manchester United striker is probably best remembered for his time as part of the infamous Wimbledon Crazy Gang side of the late 80s and early 90s. Now an expert in all things La Liga he works as a pundit and co-commentator on Sky Sports’ Spanish football coverage and is a contributor to unibet.
Here is Terry's Villarreal v Las Palmas and Real Madrid v Eibar tips
Villarreal v Las Palmas (Sat, 11.30am)
It’s two wins out of two for Javier Calleja in La Liga and the spark is clearly back at Villarreal. It’s the total opposite for new Las Palmas coach Paco Ayesteran with two defeats in his first two games.
Monday night’s 5-2 home defeat against Celta Vigo was particularly damaging to morale and confidence and they need a big fight back to get something from this game.
Unfortunately for Las Palmas I can’t see that happening in this game. With Cedric Bakambu literally on fire with five in his last two and seven of the last eight scored by Villarreal they will have too much in attack for what is a flaky Las Palmas defence.
Ayesteran will make defensive changes for this game after the performance against Celta, he has to. They also might just focus a little bit more on the defensive side of the game but I still expect Villarreal to be run away winners by 3-0 with, let me think, Bakambu scoring first!
Terry's Tips
- Villarreal 3, Las Palmas 0 (19-2, Unibet)
- Bakambu to score first (16-5, Unibet)
- Bakambu to score (evens, Unibet)
Real Madrid v Eibar (Sun, 7.45pm)
Eibar should be ideal opponents for a Madrid team struggling to find their real true form in their own stadium.
Real have played four home games in La Liga, with just the solitary 2-0 win against Espanyol this season. Home draws with Levante and Valencia, along with the defeat against Real Betis, have been somewhat of a surprise. Spurs also picked up a draw at the Bernabeu on Tuesday evening.
I do get the feeling though that a big home win is just around the corner for Zidane’s team and it should be in this game.
Eibar picked up their first point in four last week against Deportivo with a 0-0 draw. Prior to this they had lost three on the trot, conceding 13 goals along the way.
It is a little bit of a surprise to see Eibar struggling this season and even more to see them struggling to score goals, with just three notched.
Under Mendilibar in the last couple of seasons they have become a direct attacking team that create numerous chances per game but that hasn’t been the case this season. Are teams adjusting?
It has been a straightforward 4-4-2 system with two big strikers and they have been a team who have previously serviced the strikers particularly well.
They have been unlucky though in the fact the talented former Madrid player Pedro Leon has not been able to play a game this season due to injury and it is clearly evident they miss his quality when it comes to delivering crosses into the box from open play and set-pieces.
Eibar actually picked up a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu last season but are nowhere near the level they were then.
I expect Zidane to ring the changes once again> He only just about got away with it last week at Getafe when Ronaldo got a very late winner but I don’t expect them to slip up in this one.
This should be a relatively straightforward three points for Madrid and I would imagine a great opportunity for Ronaldo and Benzema to increase their goal tallies for the season. I’m predicting a 4-0 win for Madrid with Benzema opening the scoring.
Terry's Tips
- Real Madrid 4, Malaga 0 (17-2, Unibet)
- Benzema to score first (7-2, Unibet)
- Real to score 3+ (1-3, Unibet)
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An ex-Tottenham, Coventry and Manchester United striker, Terry is probably best remembered for his time as part of the infamous Wimbledon Crazy Gang side of the late 80s and early 90s. Now an expert in all things La Liga, he works as a pundit and co-commentator on Sky Sports’ Spanish football coverage.
