Espanyol’s excellent end to the season meant they secured Europa League qualification and will play European football for the first time in 12 years.
They went undefeated across their final nine matches of the season to move up the table and finish seventh, while they also started the campaign really well.
Espanyol’s season was one of good runs and bad runs. In addition to their nine-match unbeaten run to end the campaign, they also had a stretch of six losses in a row. When they were good, they rolled with momentum. When they were bad, they got stuck in a rut.
Home form was very important for Espanyol and they earned 1.0 points per game more at the RCDE Stadium.
Credit has to also go to Rubi, the coach who was in his first year in charge at the club. He opted for a more possession-based approach and built a 4-3-3 system around the excellent central midfielder Marc Roca, a graduate of the club’s academy.
They also signed well, with summer arrival Borja Iglesias doing an excellent job at centre-forward with 17 goals and with January acquisition Wu Lei boosting the attack in the final stretch.
Everything came together to make this a great year for Espanyol. Now the challenge is to try to replicate this and to try to be more consistent.
