THE IMPORTANCE OF SCORING FIRST

At home against both Valencia and Espanyol it was a case of having to come from behind to get a point. Yesterday, however at the José Zorrilla, an early goal inside the opening five minutes from Juanlu settled the nerves as we went on to cruise to an easy win. 

And it goes to show just how important scoring that first goal can be and that is shown by the statistics so far this season. In fact the only time we have scored the opening goal of the game and not taken all three points was against UD Las Palmas on the opening day of the season. It came via an own goal from Álex Suárez to put us 1-0 up but Las Palmas twice came back to level as the game finished 2-2. Since then we have taken the lead on seven occasions and ended up taking three points from them all. Wins against Getafe (1-0), Valladolid (2-1), Betis (1-0), Espanyol (2-1), Rayo Vallecano (1-0), Celta (1-0), and then most recently 4-0 against Valladolid. Only Mallorca and Getafe can match this statistic who have also gone ahead on eight occasions and only dropped two points. 

A large part of the success of this statistic lies in the number of clean sheets the team has already accumulated this season with eight in 24 games. All of this comes ahead of a crucial next few games against teams in and around us in the table, as we are set to face Mallorca, Rao Vallecano and Real Sociedad in our next three games.