Villarreal vs Barcelona

The two out-of-form La Liga powerhouses are set to trade tackles at the Estadio de la Ceramica as Villarreal take on Barcelona.

After falling to a 2-0 Champions League defeat to Manchester United in midweek, Villarreal’s attention will turn back to domestic affairs, where they’ve failed to impress this season. Languishing in mid-table, ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ have won just 23% of their La Liga fixtures this season (3/13), playing out a league joint-high seven draws in the process. On the bright side, though, Unai Emery’s men have won three of their last five La Liga home matches (D1, L1), as many triumphs as they had in their previous 11 at La Ceramica in the competition (D3, L5). However, since the 2008/09 season, Villarreal have failed to beat Barcelona in their subsequent 12 top-flight H2Hs on home turf (W8, D4), conceding 2+ goals in each of the last four in a row.

As for Barcelona, the midweek Champions League draw with Benfica at home threw their two-finish in Group E into a corridor of doubt. However, it provides new boss Xavi Hernandez with an opportunity to become only the third Barca manager to oversee a clean sheet in his first three competitive matches in charge. That’s because he navigated the ‘Blaugrana’ to a narrow 1-0 win over Espanyol on his debut back last weekend, bringing Barcelona on the cusp of recording back-to-back La Liga triumphs for the first time this season. The Catalan heavyweights are on their longest wait for their first away league win of a new season since 1986/87, having gone winless in their opening five La Liga travels this term (D3, L2). What’s more, Barca have scored a measly average of just 0.8 goals per away league game this season.