La Liga Tips: Bellingham and Real Madrid to resume La Liga dominance

• Chances at a premium between Valencia and Mallorca

• Barcelona to outplay Las Palmas in festival of football

• Jude Bellingham to strengthen Real Madrid's title charge

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Valencia v Mallorca - Sat, 17:30

No team's matches have seen fewer goals in La Liga this season than Mallorca's (60), while no team's home matches have seen fewer goals than Valencia's (26). If you prefer goals and open matches over tactical battles, you might want to pick a different game at 5.30pm on Saturday.

With that said, you won't find many fans of either club moaning too much at the moment. Valencia have been one of the surprise overperformers in La Liga this season, and will head into the weekend in 8^th position with a European push still in play. With a team built on a strong defence and fast attacking transitions, managing the margins has been their speciality so far.

For Mallorca, meanwhile, the context of their trip is that they have one of the biggest games in the club's history fast approaching. Precisely a week after this match, and over two decades after they last made it to a Copa del Rey final, they will meet Athletic Club at La Cartuja to try and lift the trophy for only the second time in their existence.

After two wins in their last three games in La Liga, Mallorca now have a much healthier cushion to the drop zone too. Having dimmed that urgency against the threat of relegation, one would expect Javier Aguirre to be protecting some of his players from Saturday's game in Valencia.

Even with changes, however, Mallorca will be a tough nut to crack. And for a Valencia side that are at their best going forward when they have space to counter in, I expect the hosts to have a hard time breaking down the opposition's 5-3-2 when the initiative falls on them.

In what I expect to be a low-scoring game, if anyone can break the deadlock for Valencia it's likely to be Hugo Duro. Only Borja Mayoral (10) has scored more goals to put his team ahead than Duro (8) in La Liga this season, and he'll welcome a fight with Mallorca's sturdy back line.

Barcelona v Las Palmas - Sat, 20:00

In a season that for some time looked like it might end in disaster by Barcelona's lofty standards, their return to action comes with more optimism than one would have expected a little over a fortnight ago.

After eliminating Napoli in the Champions League and then dispatching Atletico Madrid 3-0 in their last game, Barcelona look to be finding their most competitive form of the season - both as a collective and from key individuals like Robert Lewandowski. Indeed, the sudden change in mood has even led some to suggest that Xavi might not leave in the summer after all.

As for their first test following the international break, Barcelona will welcome a Las Palmas side with plenty of familiar faces. Garcia Pimienta is a native of the region and coached at La Masia for over two decades, while players Mika Marmol, Sandro Ramirez, Munir El Haddadi, Julian Araujo and Marc Cardona all have backgrounds with the Catalan side.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but if you want to watch a football match in the purest sense this weekend then the game at Montjuic will give you that. Las Palmas will try to keep the ball as long as possible and they'll have no intention of going there to sit in a defensive shape. What type of result they can extract by the end of it is a different matter, however.

The islanders are winless in five in La Liga, and have shown vulnerabilities against sides brave enough to press them in recent times - i.e. precisely what Barcelona will do. After only conceding 20 goals in their first 24 games in La Liga this season (0.8 per game), Las Palmas have conceded 12 in their last five (2.4 per game).

Although a slower, controlled game is the optimal way for Las Palmas' profile of players, Xavi's side should be able to force errors and cash in on them - much like they did against Napoli in their last home game.

Real Madrid v Athletic Bilbao - Sun, 20:00

Nine years have passed since Athletic were last able to beat Real Madrid in La Liga, and another 19 have passed since they last beat them at the Santiago Bernabeu. Indeed, that last victory in the capital came in Ernesto Valverde's first spell in charge of the club; he's now on his third.

The caveat against all of that information is that this is one of the best Athletic teams we've seen in the last two decades. Los Leones are well in the hunt to finish in the top four in La Liga - something they haven't done since 2013-14 - and are one game away from lifting the Copa del Rey for the first time since 1983-84.

Much like the aforementioned Mallorca, the question is as much about Ernesto Valverde's perspective as it is whether his team are capable of winning this weekend. With that Copa del Rey final in waiting - one which means an incredible amount to Athletic - Valverde might well hold some players back knowing a victory at the Bernabeu isn't the likely outcome, even with their best scenario performance-wise.

Of course, Real Madrid also have a big date waiting. Their Champions League quarter-final tie with Manchester City is next up after the Athletic game, although they have a comfier margin of recuperation than their opponents do before the Copa del Rey final.

Beyond what decisions both coaches take in view of forthcoming games, the reality is even the worthiest challengers need two things to happen to win at the Bernabeu: their best performance and an under-par one from Real Madrid. That doesn't happen often, with los Blancos only losing two of their 52 home league games since Ancelotti returned to his post.

In the absence of the suspended Vinicius Junior, I'll opt for Jude Bellingham to be the one to lead Real Madrid's charge. After his return to fitness and goal-scoring form for England, he'll be ready to unleash on La Liga once more.

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