Villarreal defender Mateo Musacchio believes that the Yellow Submarine's defence will play a key role in deciding their top-four hopes this season.

The newly-promoted La Liga outfit, who currently sit in fourth spot in the table, have conceded just 21 times in their 20 league games this season, which is the joint-third best record in the division.

Meanwhile, they have scored 39 times, which is a total only bettered by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

"There's still some points to go for us to guarantee permanence and when we achieve that, then we'll see how things are and what options we'll have up to the end of the season," he told reporters at a press conference.

"We know we have good players in attack, who take their chances well and can win us games. If we can keep clean sheets, we know that the players we have in attack can make the difference in games, because the team is on a good run, we've already started the year well and have followed the dynamic of previous games."

Ikechukwu Uche is Villarreal's leading scorer this season with 12 in La Liga.