Without a win in three games, title challengers AZ Alkmaar will be expected to return to winning form when they take on Excelsior at the AFAS Stadium. They missed a big chance to climb to the very top of the Eredivisie standings by taking just two points in the previous two Eredivisie matches. They played to a draw with Utrecht and Volendam in the previous two rounds. The 5-5 draw at home to Utrecht is impossible to explain, but the 1-1 stalemate away at Volendam certainly represented a massive setback for Pascal Jansen and his men. Somewhat unexpectedly, they ended their participation in the cup after losing to Utrecht in extra time. In their case, this does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, because now they can fully devote themselves to their obligations in the domestic championship. It seems that AZ could not have asked for a better opponent in their bid to get back to winning ways. Excelsior have been playing very poorly lately and as a result of such games they have put themselves in a situation where they will have to work hard not to slip into the danger zone. They play extremely poorly on away games this season, where they managed to avoid defeat only twice, while they lost 8 times, in most cases without scoring a goal. Even when they managed to score a goal, those goals were nothing more than consolation because they scored them in defeats against Ajax (7-1) and Feyenoord (5-1). It is very difficult for them to come to an end with the best teams in the league, because Twente also defeated them very convincingly at home with 4-0. With players like Pavlidis, Karlsson, Odgaard, the quality is without a doubt on the AZ side and I believe that they will not have too many problems to regain their confidence in front of their fans.