Barcelona v Espanyol
15:00
After a run of three straight draws, Barca got back to winning ways with a routine 3-0 win at bottom of the league Osasuna. As a result, they remain in 2nd, six points behind Real Madrid. Espanyol made it three wins in four as they beat Sporting Gijon 2-1 at home to also extend their unbeaten run to nine games and move up to 9th.
Barca have in fact been better on the road than at home this term as they’ve won just two of their last six at the Camp Nou and both those came against sides currently in the bottom-five. Indeed, Barca haven’t beaten anyone higher than 13th in their last 12 at home and though two of those failures to win were against Real, they’ve lost to Valencia and Alaves in that time and only managed draws against Atletico and Malaga.
With that in mind, we’d certainly be reluctant to back the champions at 1.13. After their 6-4 defeat at Sevilla on the opening day of the season Espanyol have since gone unbeaten on the road and kept clean sheets in their last four, one of which came in a goalless draw at Atletico Madrid in their last away game. While it might be a big ask to get anything from this game, we expect Espanyol to prove competitive against a Barca side that certainly not at their fluent best at the moment and so we’re siding with Quique Sanchez Flores’s side on the handicap.
