Football Bet of the Day: Parakeets to chirp in Spain

Real Sociedad v Espanyol
Monday 20:00 (Live on Eleven Sports 1)

There was last-minute heartbreak for Kev in Greece last night. Xanthi scored a 90th-minute penalty to snatch a 2-2 draw and steal Kev's stake away from him at the last. Nevertheless, it was a good first week of 2019 for our man and we've got some catching up to do.

We start in Spain, where Espanyol could upset their hosts in the final game from La Liga's 19th round. Real Sociedad won their first match under new coach Imanol Alguacil - and it was an impressive 2-0 win against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu - but they have failed to win this particular fixture in any of the last three seasons.

There's also been a remarkable pattern to ninth-placed Espanyol's results this season. Home and away, the Parakeets are W0-D0-L8 against teams currently above them in the table. Playing clubs now below them in the table, they are W7-D3-L0 (W1-D3-L0 on the road).

Real Sociedad are... below them in the table. The 12th-placed outfit are W1-D3-L4 at Anoeta this term, with the sole success coming against 17th-placed Celta Vigo. Of course, there's a chance the Basques will continue to bounce under their new boss, but the pattern around Espanyol's results is too strong to ignore. We're backing the visitors to fly away with at least a point this evening.