Sid Lowe

And yet here they are in Spain, the only team close to Madrid and Barcelona.

They've had a fantastic first half of the season, the best in their history.

They've got a game in hand, so they will have the opportunity to close that gap even further.

They've been beaten four times all season, and those four are Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico, and then against Betis two weeks ago away.

Now, those are all games you can lose.

And the weird thing is, from my point of view, as an analysis of Villarreal in La Liga, I think they have the strongest squad outside the top three.

I think they have the best starting XI outside the top three.

And I think they have a very good manager.

And I think, actually, if you look at their results, they have won the games they should win.

And they've not won the games that maybe you would say, well, yeah, maybe they shouldn't win those.

Madrid, Barca, Atletico, Betis away.

And then you go to the Champions League and think, that's not what's happened in the Champions League.

Because you could look at this and say, well, the Champions League level is higher than La Liga.

And that would be true up to a point.

And it would be true up to a point what their manager has tried to claim, which is that in Champions League, they've been pretty unlucky.

The way they drew with Spurs, sorry, the way they lost to Spurs with an own goal very early on.

The defeat, the draw, I think it was with Juventus.

Yes, Man City came and destroyed them, but City were just another level.

But then what happens is they start to fall away in those games where you do expect more.

They get beaten by Paphos.