The favourites for the 2022/23 La Liga title

Real Madrid lifted their 35th La Liga title last season and we’ve looked into who the favourites are for this year's competition.

Villarreal – 40/1 

An outsider's pick for La Liga would be Unai Emery’s Villarreal side. 

They had quite the run in the Champions League last season as they made it all the way to the semi-finals and knocked out Bayern Munich in the process. 

Last season Emery’s side finished seventh in the league with 59 points. 

Their biggest asset was their sturdy defensive record as they only conceded 37 goals throughout the entire campaign.  

The last time a side other than Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid won La Liga was all the way back in 2003/04 when Valencia won their sixth league title. 

 

Sevilla – 20/1 

Another outsider's pick for the La Liga title would be Julen Lopetegui’s Sevilla side. 

Last season they finished fourth in the league and only lost four matches throughout the entire campaign. 

They finished the season on 70 points, 16 short of Real Madrid who went onto lift the title. 

Plenty of their matches last season were won by a one goal margin and they also drew more matches than any other side with 16 draws throughout the season.  

Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou had one of the biggest xG overperformances last season with a +4.8 overperformance.  

If Sevilla can turn some of those draws into wins, there’s no reason why they won’t be up and around the top of the table again. 

 

Atletico Madrid – 11/2 

Last season was somewhat inconsistent for Diego Simeone and his Atletico Madrid side as they lost nine matches throughout the league season. 

They did end last year with a flourish though as they won 10 of their last 14 league matches to finish in third place on 71 points. 

We usually associate Atletico Madrid with their defensive sturdiness, but last season this proved to be somewhat of an issue for them. 

They conceded 43 goals throughout the season, which was more than any other side in the top eight. 

Jan Oblak who has ranked as one of the best goalkeepers in the world for some time now had the biggest xG underperformance of any La Liga goalkeeper with an underperformance of 6.1 goals. 

If Oblak himself can get back to his best, there’s no reason why Atletico can’t be up and around the top of the table. 

 

Barcelona – 11/8 

Perhaps the biggest unknown coming into this season is Barcelona. 

So far, they have signed five new players and provided that they are able to register them all, there’s no doubt they have improved the quality of their squad. 

Robert Lewandowski is probably their most exciting addition and he immediately improves their forward line. 

Barcelona averaged 1.78 goals per game and scored 12 less goals than Real Madrid did. 

With the additions of Andreas Christensen, Jules Kounde and Franck Kessie they have also improved their defensive options. 

As Barcelona manager, Xavi currently has a win percentage of 54.1% and his next task is to bridge the gap to Real Madrid, which stood at 13 points last season.  

 

Real Madrid – 6/5 

Unsurprisingly the current favourites for La Liga are Real Madrid, who already have a trophy in the bag this season. 

They were crowned champions of the UEFA Super Cup as they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in the final with goals from David Alaba and Karim Benzema. 

Benzema himself is coming off the season of his career as he won the Golden Boot in both La Liga and the Champions League. 

Real Madrid have now won three of the last six La Liga titles and they will be eyeing up their 36th title this time around.