Osasuna vs Barcelona

Out-of-sorts Barcelona will be keen to get their humiliating season back on the rails when they take on mid-table Osasuna at the Estadio El Sadar.

Osasuna enjoyed a spectacular start to the new La Liga season by their standards, having won five of their inaugural nine league fixtures (D2, L2). However, they have since experienced a rollercoaster, going winless in their last seven La Liga outings (D3, L4) to drop from fifth to 11th in the table. For Osasuna, goals have been at a premium of late, with ‘Los Rojillos’ drawing a blank in five of their last six top-flight games, with their solitary goal in that spread of matches coming from the spot. Adding to a growing list of problems, Jagoba Arrasate’s men have picked up just a single victory from their last nine La Liga home fixtures (D4, L4), scoring under 1.5 goals in all nine!

In the meantime, Barcelona fell to an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at Bayern Munich in midweek Champions League action to exit the competition already in the group stage for the first time in 21 years. After winning his first two La Liga matches in charge, new manager Xavi Hernandez suffered his first managerial league defeat as Real Betis eked out a 1-0 win at Camp Nou last time out. In addition to losing two of his five managerial fixtures at Barcelona (W2, D1), Xavi has overseen his side failing to get on the scoresheet three times in that sequence. Having returned just six wins from their opening 15 La Liga games this season (D5, L4), Barcelona are enduring their worst top-flight start in terms of victories since 2003/04. Conceding first could spell disaster for Barca, as they’ve only won one of seven league matches in which they fell behind this term (D2, L4).