The Bats are flying. Against the odds, CF Valencia, a side which have faced financial meltdown for most of last year are now within three points of Real Madrid after 18 games. Their good form continued on Sunday night when they destroyed local rivals Villarreal 4-1 at the Mestalla. Valencia have won eight of their last 11 league matches and moved clear into third position, five points ahead of Mallorca.
Unai Emery's team have the best away record in Spain with seven wins, one draw and one defeat from their nine games. They have seven points more than at the same stage last season, but some factors remain consistent. David Villa is the joint leading goalscorer in Spain, his 14 league goals so far putting him level with Barca's World Player of the Year Lionel Messi. In the race for the Pichichi - awarded to the league's top scorer - both players scored twice at the weekend as their sides notched up four at home. How many would Villa have scored playing alongside Barca's creative stars like Xavi and Iniesta?
Villa was prepared to leave the club last summer. He saw no future, an understandable view given that the club he joined from Zaragoza in 2005 had lurched from one disaster to another. He wanted to play Champions League football, again a logical desire given his reputation as one of the best, if not the best No 9 in football. Valencia got lucky. Barca and Real haggled over his fee to the extent that no business was done. Villa had no choice but to stay where he is loved.
It would be unfair to say that he remained against his will, as his expression of delight after scoring his goals on Sunday showed. He may be the big fish in Spain's third biggest city, but Valencia is not a small pond. Teammates David Silva, David Albelda, Carlos Marchena and Juan Mata are all proven Spanish internationals. The revelation of Valencia's season has been the diminutive Argentine midfielder Ever Banega, 21. He was signed by Valencia from Boca Juniors - where he was Fernando Gago's successor - in 2008 for a huge ?18 million (Dh 95m) fee. Such was Valencia's muddled way of thinking, he was loaned to Atletico Madrid last season so that he was not on the payroll. A leaked compromising film of him on the internet did not help his cause, but Banega did well in Madrid, even though he was twice sent off.
Everton tried to sign him in August, yet as with Villa, Valencia managed to keep hold of him and have reaped the rewards of his dynamic runs and Iniesta-like accurate passing. Banega swept the ball into the net against Villarreal to open the scoring. Banega has flourished alongside the more experienced Albelda as one of two defensive midfielders in a 4-3-3-1 formation. Replacing the once peerless Ruben Baraja, he has given energy to the midfield allowing Valencia to dominate.
Winger Joaquin is also touching the form which saw clubs hanker for his signature when he was at Real Betis, especially in Europe where Valencia are still in the Europa League. Valencia have reached seven major European finals and won four of them. Awaiting is an eminently winnable last-32 tie against the Belgian side Club Brugge next month. The public have responded and average crowds are up from 37,741 to 45,454. Work on their new stadium is expected to resume in the forthcoming months and life has not looked so positive for Los Ches in years. Perhaps just as importantly, club president Manuel Llorente appears to be presiding over a period of fiscal sensibility not seen there for a decade. Valencia have often been their own worst enemies, but surely the Bats must learn from past mistakes.
@Email:sports@thenational.ae