AZ Alkmaar travel to Emmen on Saturday looking to end a run of consecutive defeats which has seen them fall off significantly in the race for the title.
On the other hand, Emmen are still without a league victory 20 games into the season, and it would take a massive turnaround from hereon in to see them avoid relegation.
Match preview
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AZ were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Ajax in their last outing on Sunday, leaving them 13 points off the top and most likely, with too much ground to make up.
Only Ajax have lost fewer league games than The Cheeseheads so far, but too many draws along the way have ultimately cost AZ a proper shot at glory.
Pascal Jansen's men must now focus on securing a return to Europe next season, with Groningen breathing heavily down their necks in sixth place.
A trip to Emmen, who they beat 1-0 in the most recent meeting between the sides back in November thanks to a Bruno Martins Indi strike, is a good place to start.
In fact, each of the last five meetings between the teams in all competitions has ended in favour of Saturday's visitors by a combined score of 14 goals to one.
On Sunday, Emmen recorded yet another defeat - their 14th of the campaign - at Willem II in a crucial game down at the bottom of the table.
Courtesy of that victory, Willem II have now moved seven points clear of Emmen in the Eredivisie table, leaving them with all to do if they are to miraculously beat the drop.
Since the inception of the league, only five teams have made a worse start to a season than that of Dick Lukkien's men this term, highlighting how dismal they have been all through.
Emmen Eredivisie form: LLLDLL
Emmen form (all competitions): LLLDLL
AZ Alkmaar Eredivisie form: DWWWLL
AZ Alkmaar form (all competitions): WWLWLL
Team News
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Following his promotion from the youth team, Jelle Duin becomes the latest addition to AZ's relatively young attack, which already contains the likes of Myron Boadu and Calvin Stengs.
In response to the consecutive defeats suffered by his team, Pascal Jansen will be considering making some changes which could see Duin make his senior debut.
Collin Seedorf departed Emmen on deadline day, securing a move to FC Eindhoven in search of more playing minutes as he enters into a definitive period of his career.
Glenn Bijl returned to the side for Emmen's defeat to Willem II after a brief injury lay off which kept him out of the previous game against PSV.
Luciano Carty, Lentini Caciano and Marko Kolar will be absent for the game, but Dick Lukkien could have them back for his side's trip to RKC Waalwijk.
Emmen possible starting lineup:
Telgenkamp; Cavlan, Bakker, Veendorp, Bijl; Bernadou, Tibbling, Pena; Ben Moussa, Avdijaj, De Leeuw
AZ Alkmaar possible starting lineup:
Bizot; Wijndal, Martins Indi, Hatzidiakos, Sugawara; Stengs, Koopmeiners, Midtsjo; Karlsson, Boadu, Gudmundsson
We say: Emmen 0-2 AZ Alkmaar
It is almost impossible to envisage where Emmen's first league win of the season is going to come from, and the visit of AZ is expected to spell another defeat for the home side, who simply look too vulnerable at the moment.
Top betting tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a AZ Alkmaar win with a probability of 65.54%. A draw had a probability of 18.5% and a win for Emmen had a probability of 15.96%.
The most likely scoreline for an AZ Alkmaar win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.69%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (9.04%) and 0-1 (7.74%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.3%), while for a Emmen win it was 2-1 (4.45%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with a 7.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that AZ Alkmaar would win this match.
