Deportivo Alaves vs Barcelona

Early La Liga pacesetters Barcelona head to Estadio Mendizorrotza to take on mid-table Deportivo Alaves.

Back-to-back La Liga defeats in the build-up to this fixture, including a goal-glutted 3-2 loss at Real Madrid a fortnight ago, left Deportivo Alaves in the lower reaches but only barely. Three victories across the opening eight rounds (D1, L4) keep the 11th-placed hosts level on points with 9th-placed Rayo Vallecano at the start of this round. However, Luis Garcia Plaza’s side must punch above their weight to put more points on the board against a Barcelona side they’ve lost to in their last three La Liga H2Hs. Those defeats form part of a more sinister pattern that has seen ‘El Glorioso’ fail to beat this opposition for eight years during a run spanning 14 matches (D2, L12). As if that’s not ominous enough, Alaves’ last home win against Barca in any competition dates back to December 2001 (D3, L8).

In the meantime, Barcelona didn’t take well a 2-1 loss at Monaco in their opening Champions League fixture as they thrashed Young Boys 5-0 at home in midweek to put things back to ‘normal.’ ‘More of the same’ must have been Hansi Flick’s pre-match advice after Osasuna dismantled his team 4-2 last weekend, knocking them down from a 100% seven-game La Liga start (W7). Barcelona’s intimidating scoring potential could offer them way out if they fail to keep their first competitive clean sheet on the road this season, with Los Blaugranas netting an unrivaled league-high 25 goals in the first eight rounds. Averaging over three goals per game, you’d expect a clear-cut win for Barcelona, yet just two of their last six H2H meetings with Alaves produced a winning margin of 2+ goals.