Barcelona vs Real Sociedad

Barcelona and Real Sociedad will lock horns at Camp Nou as the Catalans’ first La Liga season without Lionel Messi gets underway this weekend.

Without Messi in the picture, Barcelona have a point to prove this term, especially following an underwhelming third-place finish last season. Indeed, a tally of 79 points in 2020/21 was well below Barca’s staggering average of 91.42 points across the previous 12 La Liga seasons in which their former icon played 30+ matches. Notably, since 2008/09, Messi scored the decisive goal in 60 of Barcelona’s 204 home victories in La Liga. Now shorn of one of the world’s greatest-ever players, the ‘Blaugrana‘ could go 4+ home La Liga fixtures without winning for the first time since 2003 (D1, L2). Interestingly, both losses during Barca’s three-match winless home league streak towards the end of last season saw them take the lead. Yet, Sociedad’s arrival at Camp Nou puts the hosts in a prime position to return to winning ways, as they’ve won their last 23 home top-flight H2Hs here.

On the other hand, Sociedad will be desperate to post their first La Liga victory at Camp Nou since May 1991. A run of six away La Liga openers without defeat is encouraging (W3, D3), though a mixed return across their previous four league trips (W2, L2) might be concerning. Despite topping the table after the opening ten rounds of fixtures last term (W7, D2, L1), Sociedad eventually fell 15 points short of a top-four finish. The visitors’ incapacity to defy the odds saw them finish the 2020/21 La Liga season as one of just two teams to go winless in all league matches they started as outsiders (D3, L5). Scoreless in two of their last four top-flight trips to Camp Nou, they seem unlikely to improve that record here.