La Liga 2026-27 table: Villarreal's worst start in 25 years

Villarreal are in the Champions League and 19th in La Liga with two points from fifteen — their worst start in twenty-five top-flight seasons. Tonight they visit a winless Málaga.

There is one line in the La Liga 2026-27 table that simply should not be there. Villarreal — a Champions League club this season, with PSG, Liverpool and Manchester United on their autumn calendar — sit 19th with two points from a possible fifteen. In twenty-five seasons in Spain's top flight, the Yellow Submarine have never started worse. And tonight, at 21:30 local time, they travel to La Rosaleda to close matchday 6 against a Málaga side that has not won either.

Two points from fifteen: the numbers behind Villarreal's worst start

Five matches, no wins, two draws, three defeats. Seven goals scored, ten conceded. Villarreal opened the season with a point at Racing Santander and another at the Metropolitano — results that looked, in August, like a perfectly respectable cushion for a side coming off European qualification. Since then, nothing.

The most painful statistic is not in the league table at all. Add the Champions League and Villarreal have now lost four in a row — every single one of them by a one-goal margin: 2-3 to Deportivo, 0-1 at Mendizorroza, 2-3 at Borussia Dortmund and 1-2 at home to Betis. In Germany they had actually levelled through a Santiago Mouriño header before Serhou Guirassy settled it late. Against Betis, Gerard Moreno scored on 29 minutes and the team fell apart after the break, undone by goals from Cucho and Nathan.

There is another uncomfortable detail: Villarreal have yet to win at home. Two matches at the Estadio de la Cerámica this season, two defeats, both of them lost in the second half.

The La Liga 2026-27 table, top to bottom

While Villarreal hunt a first win, Barcelona have six from six: eighteen points, twenty-eight goals scored, six conceded. Real Madrid follow on fifteen, Atlético and Sevilla on thirteen, and Betis sit on twelve with a game in hand. At the top there is a clear hierarchy. At the bottom there is a traffic jam.

Five clubs covered by two points, three of them still looking for a first win. Celta are the strangest case of the lot: four draws in six games and just three goals scored. Valencia, bottom of the pile only days ago, have edged clear by the narrowest of margins — we went through their start in our piece on Valencia's collapse. And newly promoted Elche have already shipped sixteen.

Málaga vs Villarreal: two teams who have forgotten how to win

Tonight's game at La Rosaleda closes matchday 6 and pits two sides with an identical problem and opposite backgrounds against each other: one has just come up from the second tier, the other plays European nights at the highest level. Here is how Málaga arrive:

• They are 18th on three points: three draws and two defeats in five games.
• They have scored just two goals all season — the weakest attack in the division.
• The most recent came from Adrián Niño in the 83rd minute to rescue a draw against Celta.
• They are back in the top flight after an absence that began in 2017-18.
• Their coach, Funes, took them up from the second division and is making his own top-flight debut.

Across from them, a Villarreal side whose season also includes PSG, Liverpool, Manchester United, Napoli, Borussia Dortmund, Fenerbahçe, Slavia Prague and Sabah in the Champions League league phase. That gap — European heavyweights on one page, 19th in the La Liga 2026-27 table on the other — is precisely why this fixture carries so much weight.

Íñigo Pérez left himself nowhere to hide. He pointed at a lack of ability in the dugout — his own — and admitted that half an hour after full time he could find no optimism about what was coming next. Nobody in Vila-real is pretending the next few weeks are anything other than decisive.

What it all means for quiniela matchday 8

Both of tonight's protagonists turn up again at the weekend on the quiniela matchday 8 coupon — and not in the quiet slots, either. This is the order you will meet them:

1. Slot 4: Getafe vs Málaga. The division's weakest attack travels to the Coliseum.
2. Slot 6: Villarreal vs Levante. The Yellow Submarine at home, where they still have not won.
3. Slot 15, the Pleno al 15 tiebreaker: Atlético vs Real Madrid, the Madrid derby.
4. The coupon opens with Saturday's Osasuna vs Rayo Vallecano, so there is time to think it over.

Fixtures like these are gold and poison at the same time. A team that has not won since August is tempting for the draw, but it is also exactly the kind of slot where a bad run ends abruptly and takes whole coupons down with it. If you would rather study it properly, the 2026-27 season archive has every matchday with its fixtures and results.

Weekends like this one are what decide a prediction league between friends: nobody puts down a confident home win for Villarreal or an away win for Málaga, and that is exactly where the points nobody saw coming get made. If you fancy testing your read on it, you can start a prediction league with friends on quiniPrats and compare picks matchday by matchday — no prize on offer beyond being right. Matchday 8 is still open.