Espanyol storms the podium

With 17 points out of 39 possible, a projection that would lead Espanyol to finish the championship between 50-51, Vicente Moreno’s team has positioned itself as one of the best of the period that began in 2009 with the inauguration of the RCDE Stadium. There are only three seasons with better figures, and in all of them the end of the course was remarkable, placing the blue and white team in the place of LaLiga that corresponds to it by history and budget.

The best season dates from the 2010-11 campaign with Mauricio Pochettino. Espanyol on matchday 13 was in the Champions League, with 25 points, impregnable at home (they won seven games in a row), captained by Dani Osvaldo and Joan Verdú. But the second round, as happened in those first campaigns in Cornellà-El Prat, was leaden. Performance declined and the Blue and Whites finished eighth with 49 points.

The best score (56) was obtained by Quique Sánchez Flores in the 2016-17 campaign, when they finished eighth. At this point in the championship they had 18 points after a faltering start but quickly straightened out. The third campaign was the best in terms of the final classification. With Joan Francesc Ferrer Rubi, the parakeet team currently had 21 points and was fifth, and finished the competition in seventh place that gave access to play in the Europa League. It was the 2018-19 campaign.

In the 12 campaigns played in the stadium (not counting the last one in LaLiga SmartBank), the usual numbers of the Blue and White team are between 14 and 18 points at this point, with the two previous exceptional campaigns (Pochettino and Rubi) and with the two mediocre years that prompted a change of coach. In 12-13 Javier Aguirre replaced Pochettino (nine points) and in 19-20 when Pablo Machín was the replacement for David Gallego (eight).