Barcelona have opened up an eight-point lead at the summit of the La Liga table ahead of their meeting with Villarreal at El Madrigal on Sunday night.
Having lost just one of their 20 league games this season, Barca find themselves well clear of arch-rivals Real Madrid in the race for the title.
⚽️ @lewy_official 🔜 @VillarrealCFen #LaLigaHighlights pic.twitter.com/fit1XyTwcE— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 9, 2023
⚽️ @lewy_official 🔜 @VillarrealCFen #LaLigaHighlights pic.twitter.com/fit1XyTwcE
As for Villarreal, they occupy sixth place in the standings – four points outside the Champions League spots and 22 points behind Barcelona.
Villarreal head into Sunday’s showdown on the back of two straight defeats in La Liga, having lost to Rayo Vallecano (1-0) and Elche (3-1).
The Yellow Submarine have now lost six of their previous 13 league outings, picking up six wins and one draw along the way.
Villarreal can take confidence from the fact that they have lost just three of their last 20 La Liga games at El Madrigal, highlighting their strength on home soil.
That said, they look destined to struggle against in-form Barcelona, having suffered two damaging defeat in the lead-up to Sunday’s clash.
Barca secured an impressive 3-0 victory over Sevilla last time out, meaning they have won each of their previous five La Liga games.
When you look at the bigger picture, Xavi’s side have won 10 of their past 11 league matches – and 17 of their 20 league encounters this season.
After preventing Sevilla from scoring last weekend, Barcelona have now kept a whopping 15 clean sheets in 20 La Liga outings this term.
Having conceded a measly seven goals in the process (0.35 goals against per game), Barca are not expected to concede on Sunday.
Head-to-head: Barcelona have won six of their last seven La Liga matches against Villarreal, scoring over 2.5 goals on four occasions while keeping three clean sheets.
Remarkably, the Yellow Submarine have only managed to win one of their previous 27 league meetings with Barca.
Team news: Villarreal look set to be without the injured trio of Giovani Lo Celso, Alfonso Padraza and Nicolas Jackson this weekend.
Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets was forced off after just eight minutes in last weekend’s win over Sevilla, while Ousmane Dembele remains sidelined through injury.
When you couple Barcelona’s phenomenal form with Villarreal’s woeful record in this fixture, all the signs point towards an easy away win on Sunday.
Forebet predicts that Barcelona will cruise to a comfortable victory over Villarreal, keeping yet another clean sheert in the process.