Barcelona – Athletic Bilbao

Barcelona will have no trouble in their game against Athletic

Barcelona play at home against Athletic on Sunday 23 October. The Catalans have ended their black streak. Xavi's side were defeated by Villarreal. Importantly, the coach finally applied a substantial rotation. The freshness of the attacking line-up was one of the keys to success. The coach completely revamped the flanks. Torres and Fati replaced Dembele and Rafinha. Lewandowski was back in attacking mode. The Pole scored a double. Barcelona are on a quality schedule in the Spanish championship. The reliability of their defence attracts attention. The Catalans have not conceded in eight of the ten games at the start of the tournament. This is one of the records in the history of La Liga. An important factor in Barça's transformation has been the recovery of key players. At the moment, only Araujo is on the injured list. Xavi has already announced a certain rotation for the match against Athletic. It is very likely that the flanks of the attack will be changed again. Athletic have dropped out of the top four after a perfect start. The team dropped to sixth place. The Basques received a lot of compliments after giving away five wins in six meetings, but there were several objective reasons for the breakthrough. The most important was the weakness of their opponents. A light calendar made it impossible to assess Athletic's true potential. The match against Atletico provided more information. It is too early to equate the Basques with the local top clubs, although bookmakers often underestimate Valverde's side. After the setback in the game against Madrid, another loss of points followed. Athletic stumbled against Getafe. The team are unbeaten in three meetings. Before that, there was also a draw with Sevilla. The personnel situation at Athletic is not a cause for concern. The club does not have a single injured player. The bookmakers are still very favourable to the Basques. Even at the Camp Nou, they leave good odds against the other teams. The odds for Barcelona are still at 1.60. That's a pretty good bet. Athletic have not yet shown anything in matches against the top clubs, and Barcelona produced a great game against Villarreal, which is comparable in class to the Basques. A tough schedule is a disadvantage for the visitors. If we take the Eurocup contenders, Athletic have the most modest squad depth. Barcelona demolished the visitors from Bilbao 4-0 in their last encounter. It's hard to expect such a rout now, but a confident win is likely. There have been questions about Athletic's defence in recent matches. The defensive line runs the risk of not being able to cope with the pressure of a motivated grandee. Villarreal, with the best defence in La Liga, have conceded three goals in seven minutes. The prognosis for Bilbao in such a situation cannot be favourable.