PREVIEW | Alavés v FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona are off to Vitoria in the Basque Country this Sunday (4.15pm CEST, international times and broadcasters here), where Alavés stand between them and three points that would go some way towards making up for the disappointment of the 4-2 loss to Osasuna a week ago. It would be the ideal way to leave things at the top of the Liga table as we go into another international break.

But it won't be easy against a side that has got their season off to a decent start, and for the time being are fairly comfortably tucked in the mid-table positions. After two straight defeats at Real Madrid and then lowly Getafe, they will be pleased to be back at Mendizorroza, where they have yet to lose this season, having drawn with Betis and beaten Las Palmas and Sevilla.

Happening elsewhere

Real Madrid and Villarreal, second and third going into this weekend, met on Saturday night. Real won that one 2-0 to hopefully only temporarily match Barça on 21 points, albeit with a slightly weaker goal difference. Fourth placed Atlético Madrid are at Real Sociedad in Sunday's late 9pm CEST kick-off.

Head to head

However, recent history is very much on Barça's side. Since a shock defeat at Camp Nou in 2016, they have not lost home or away to Alavés, and every time they have been to Vitoria they have come back with all three points.

In fact, we have to go all the way back to 2001 to find the last time Alavés won at home against the Catalans, with Barça winning last year's meeting 3-1 with goals from Lewandowski, Gundogan and Vitor Roque.

Team news

It was wonderful to see Frenkie de Jong back in action in the comfortable 5-0 win over Young Boys midweek, and we might get to see a bit more of the Dutch midfielder this time. But Ter Stegen, Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Gavi, Marc Bernal, Fermín Lopez and Dani Olmo are all still side-lined, while new goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny has not been included in the list announced on Saturday, having only had a minimal amount of time to train with his new colleagues.

With all those injuries, the biggest concern is how the team will respond after their European exertions on Tuesday, while Alavés have had a full week to prepare. Their own manager, Luis García Plaza, needs to work around the absences of the injured Sedlar and Guridi, while there are also question marks over the fitness of Abqar, Mouriño and Novoa.