Luis Fabiano on song for Valencia encounter

Seven goals in seven days have left Luis Fabiano "delighted with the way things have gone" as Sevilla FC host a Valencia CF side boasting master marksman David Villa.

Goals galore
Centre-forward Villa may have a healthy lead over his Sevilla counterpart in the Liga scoring chart, with his eleven strikes from as many matches eclipsing Luis Fabiano's three, but the latter has netted seven times in a week for club and country. "I'm delighted with the way things have gone," said the 28-year-old, who has clearly overcome an early-season thigh problem. He struck Sevilla's second goal at Getafe CF last Sunday, in between hat-tricks for the Andalusians against SD Ponferradina in the Copa del Rey, and for Brazil against Portugal in a 6-2 midweek win. "Let's hope the run continues."

Reference point
If the former São Paulo FC and FC Porto attacker's partnership with Frédéric Kanouté produced 39 goals for Sevilla last term, they have started only four games together this season. "I have missed [Kanouté] a lot and I'm happy we're back playing together," the Brazilian said. "Some like to have one striker playing a bit deeper than the other, but for me it's important to have someone at my side. Last season was a very good one for us and trying to reproduce that is difficult, but I want to score on Saturday. Let's see if that's possible."

Hoping to improve
David Villa will also hope to make his mark at fifth-placed Sevilla, especially after Valencia, in third, suffered a second Liga defeat of the campaign last weekend at home to Real Sporting de Gijón. The UEFA EURO 2008™ leading scorer registered his 100th Liga goal during that 3-2 loss to the club that launched his career, and he followed it with a penalty during Spain's 3-0 friendly victory over Chile on Wednesday. Duly installed as his country's fifth-top marksman of all time, the 26-year-old said: "I'm thrilled with how the season has started – it's reward for the work I put in day after day. Nobody has gifted me anything and I know what I must do to keep this good run going. I want to continue improving."