Nah personally my dislike of Espanyol has come naturally from the way they play, act and behave on the pitch against us, and to an extent against Madrid as well.
Would much rather have Girona as the 2nd best Catalan team in Spain.
This.
Can't stand that club. I have much more respect for RM even though they are a cheating and disgusting club but at least their goal is to win the titles while Espanyol base their whole existence on playing their two games against us every season like it's a CL final.
couldn't agree more, this is a loss for the league. Espanyol are one of the few teams that will stand up to Barca and try make a game of it. La Liga matches are all too often one sided against Madrid and Barca. Sad to see Espanyol go. I'd rather us have the derby than not have it
A true loss for the league would be if teams like Bilbao or Valencia would go down. Historically I don't consider Espanyol anywhere close to those teams eventhough they've been in the league for the same time than Valencia.
Anyway, most "smaller" teams have put up a great fight against both RM and Barca over the years, not only on their home grounds but also on Bernabeu/Camp Nou. Times when those teams have played against the big two with their pants down are long gone. First, because neither team is as dominant as they were a decade ago when basically every Barca/RM game already started with 1/2-0 and second because with more TV money involved those mid/lower table teams have also improved a lot. One-sided results like 4-0 or 5-0 are very rare in La Liga in recent seasons.
