Valencia 4 - Espanyol 0

Valencia: Cañizares; Curro Torres (Garrido 70'), Ayala, David Navarro, Carboni; Marchena, Baraja; Jorge López, Aimar (Rufete 64'), Vicente; Mista (Xisco 75'). 4-2-3-1.
Espanyol: Toni; Marc Bertrán, Lopo, Jarque (Oscar 62'), Carlos García, David García; Tayfun (Fredson 70'), Bastia (Domoraud 70'), Morales, Maxi; Raúl Molina. 5-4-1.

Team changes: Valencia: David Navarro, Aimar for Albelda, Oliveira / Espanyol: Toni, Marc Bertrán, Lopo for Lemmens, Domoraud, Wome.

Goals:
1-0. 07. Mista. Shot from edge of area after Toni clearance bounced off attacker.
2-0. 44. Baraja. Took Marchena pass on left of area and rounded keeper to score.
3-0. 45. Mista. Turned square pass from Vicente past keeper.
4-0. 78. Vicente. Picked up through ball from Marchena to shoot past Toni.

Once again Valencia resisted the attack by Deportivo and Real Madrid, winning 4-0 against bottom club Espanyol on Sunday evening to keep their one point lead at the top of the table. Rafa Benítez decided to rest some of his key players for this match, with Albelda (a yellow card short of a ban) kept in reserve for next weekend's game with Deportivo and Mista taking the striker role up front in place of Oliveira. On the other bench Clemente was forced to make changes due to the many injuries he had, and he lined up with a home-grown five man defence with an average age of 21.

The inexperience of his defenders was to let him down though, although the first Valencia goal came thanks to a mistake by veteran keeper Toni who was replacing the injured Lemmens. His attempted clearance cannoned off an attacker and fell to Mista, who only had to roll the ball back into the empty net to score. The visitors did come close to scoring themselves when Cañizares produced a double save from Raúl Molina and Maxi five minutes before the break, but the locals wrapped the game up before the half time whistle with two goals in as many minutes, Marchena finding Baraja for him to round Toni and score, and Aimar and Vicente combining for Mista to score his second of the night.

After that Benítez could relax and give a rest to some of his players who had participated in the midweek UEFA cup match, with Xisco getting another run out for a quarter of an hour or so. Even so they still had time to score a fourth goal, once again Marchena the provider with a defence splitting pass from his makeshift midfield role. It was a record sixth straight win in the league for the home side, and Cañizares has not let in a league goal since the opening day. Espanyol though are at the opposite end of the spectrum with a lowest ever two points from their first seven matches, and popular or not, Clemente needs to win next weekend against Celta or he may be out of a job.