You would of forgiven the home supporters if they'd headed for the exits before half-time in this all spanish fixture, as Real Madrid raced into a 3-0 lead courtesy of goals from Zielinski, Messi and Correa. It was end to end but Madrid were so clinical in front of goal, that it appeared a heavy defeat was the likely outcome.

However, there is a new air of optimism around the club at Espanyol, coupled with that never say die attitude. When Morata found the clubs new hero Oyarzabal with a neat ball, the new star made no mistake as he smashed it into the top corner beyond the despairing dive of Schmeichel. This for a moment got the home crowd off their seats. However within minutes Espanyol were down to ten men as veteran Fernandinho recieved his second yellow card for a foul on Rice, which you'd of thought that was it for Espanyol.

Espanyol however continued to press, and when the impressive Oyarzabal found Martinez, he finished in some style from long range in the 53rd minute. It was end to end stuff then as Real Madrid were always going to be threat on the break as Espanyol threw caution to the wind to push for an equaliser which duly came when Oyarzabal found former Real Madrid star James Rodriguez is smashed one into the bottom corner to complete the unlikeliest comeback.

"absolutely thrilled with that comeback, and we could of nicked all three points in the end. We've a lot of new players, but game by game they are settling. Oyarzabal is a big player for us. We were offered a 92, and 2 x 90 players for him this week, and made it clear he is not for sale. He is only going to get better, and along with other key signings, once they all settle, we are going to be a decent side. The one negative is Fernandinho now misses three games. We dont have the most strength in depth, so that's a massive blow. However tonights about celebrating a fantastic point, and one richly deserved"

A hard fought encounter in Belgium ended all square as Oyarzabal cancelled out a Tsyhankov opener to take a share of the spoils. Espanyol found the Liege keeper Martinez in inspired form as he stood firm to take the man of the match, to ensure his side remain unbeaten.

"we lnew it would be a hard game, and we are slightly disappointed in the draw, but its another good point on the board. Oyarzabel is showing exactly why we pushed hard to bring him to the club with his 3rd goal in 4 games. We've some tough games coming up and need to try and get through as many of these with damage limitation to keep our head above the water. Overall pleased with our start and all eyes are on Europe tomorrow against Cadiz before we face the might of Real Madrid"

Espanyol recorded their first league win of the season against newly promoted Bremen with new Brazilan full back Henrique bagging the decisive goal.

The full-time scoreline was somewhere surprising given both sides had 15 shots on goal, in a game where 14 corners were also shared. Oyarzabel capped off a decent week with another assist and the man of the match award and his little bit of extra quality was probably the difference in a hard fought encounter.

"Its only game two, but this was a must win fixture for us. We've identified where we need to be picking points up, and this was one of those fixtures. Last time out against Juventus, we gave a good account but came away with nothing, that was expected. After a clean sheet in Europe earlier this week, it was nice to record another one. It was also nice to have the lion's share of possession. We've avoided any injuries or suspensions which could de-rail us a lot given our squad players are not quite there in terms of impacting our first team. Again its been a week of discussions with other clubs over possible deals, but the valuations we are being quoted is off the scale. So unless something drastically changes, i'm not envisaging any major deals in or out for the foreseeable. We do have a number of players we've identified, but one by one we are ticking them off, and moving on. We've in the main now got a young squad, with a lot of players who will rise in value and ratings over the next couple of years. We've worked extremely hard to get the squad age down, and bring in assets who have improvement in them. Pino is a good example of that. We parted with a 91 rated player in Fekir who was a star for us last season, to secure his signature. He is a full international for Spain, yet he has just turned 19. By the time he is 21, we are going to have some player on our hands. There is a path for him to break into our team with another rating rise, so won't be entertaining silly offers. Football opinions are subjective, a player you rate highly others won't, likewise with their own players, their valuation and yours can be polar opposites.

We now look to Sunday and Standard Liege. They've some injury issues at the back and we need to capitalise on that. They have started the season well though, and have some top players, some we know very well from their time here, and others have been transfer targets for us. They are a little like us and do tweek their tactics from game to game, but we are aware of that, and the threat this carry, so will pick a team/tactic capable of getting us a result"

Season 17 got underway for Espanyol with a narrow defeat against one of the title favourites Juventus.

Going into the game the odds were highly stacked against the Spanish side, especially with James Rodriguez suspended. Juventus have strengthened further over the close season, with more superstars in Davies, Fernandes and Bastoni adding to what was already a star studded line up. The gulf in the two sides is massive, and on paper a heavy defeat for Espanyol looked the likely outcome.

Juventus took an early 12th minute lead when Sancho fed Bernardo Silva who finished clinically, it seemed at that point the flood gates would open. However not deterred, Espanyol kept to their own game plan as the game went from end to end and in the 61st minute, an expertly taken free kick from Saul Niguez found Morata who silenced the travelling support as he smashed home. On balance it was fully deserved in a game where Espanyol created no fewer than 11 shots on goal 4 of which were on target. Espanyol had a couple of chances of their own to win the game, but in the end suffered heartbreak as a lapse of concentration from a late freekick, saw Kimmich meet a Lukaku cross to fire in and take the three points back to Italy.

For Espanyol there was a lot of positives, they managed 44% of the possesion which against a much superior side, was a massive positive. Apart from creating a number of chances, they also forced 6 corners. New signing Morata, despite only playing 75 minutes was also named man of the match for his display, which pleased his manager.

"where are the goals going to come from was the big question for us going into the close season. Any team who loses the quality of Aguero is going to suffer. We tried very hard over to get a striker in, and it proved to be very difficult. Morata over the last 16 seasons has hit double figures just six times, whilst last season managed just 6 goals in 35 starts. On the face of it, stepping up a division with those sort of returns is a big gamble. However I always felt if we can get the right supply in the squad, then he'd have half a chance in bettering those figures. I think in Oyarzabal, Rodriguez and Niguez we have good creativity, and tonight saw Morata benefit from that. He's off the mark on day 1, which is most pleasing. I said going into the game, this was a free hit match. Juventus should be coming here and taking the points, their advantage in squad ability is not open to debate, its there for everyone to see. That being said, we've given them a real game tonight, and they will know that. The record books though will show no points for us. We need to ensure we perform at those levels consistently for the whole season and we will be okay. We've got a core of 15 first team players, then we have 33 players, we are going to need some luck with. Many of these won't be impacting our first team for 3 or 4 seasons, which keeps us very thin on the ground for strength in depth. We need to keep our big players fit and suspension free which will be a tall order over a 38 game season. You only need to look at Juventus's bench tonight to see how big the task is here, and at other clubs like us. However, on the other side of the coin, their manager is now in his 17th season with Juventus and is still looking for his first title. He has had a long time to build that squad up. I've been here just half a season, and in that time had to totally start again due to having 17 players heading into their mid 30s. We are on a long journey, we are currently in the building the foundations stage. There is going to be many bumps on the way, with Aguero's retirement a typical bump, which we've had to face, deal with it, and move on. 100 clubs and managers are competing strongly for any talent around the world, with lots of scouting and lots of gambles being made. Ready made talent comes at a premium price, and you dont always have that right asset to trade for it. We are taking the approach of finding some solid pro's, but mixing it up with some rough diamonds. We've 33 rough diamonds right now, but if just 2 or 3 of them can be polished up to become big assets for this football club, then ultimately they become tradeable and we continue to evolve through strategic trading and finding the next rough diamond"