MY ACCOUNT
Barcelona are back; back in form, back in the Champions League places in LaLiga and back looking forward to facing neighbours Espanyol again.
After a 4-2 win against Atletico Madrid last time out, following a transfer window widely considered to be a success, the Blaugrana are on the up.
Still a huge 15 points off the pace set by bitter rivals Real Madrid, there will be no title tilt, but Barca can this week focus on their local foes.
A few short weeks ago, Espanyol might have wondered if this could be their opportunity to turn around a dismal run in their biggest fixture.
Now, Xavi – whose coaching career at Barca began with a 1-0 home win over Espanyol – takes his team to Cornella-El Prat with the players full of confidence, as Stats Perform finds.
Record-setting derby dominance
Xavi was actually in the Barcelona team the last time they lost a Derbi Barceloni in LaLiga. So, is that a positive omen for Espanyol? Probably not. The reason the retired midfielder was involved is because that result came all the way back in February 2009.
Since that 2-1 Camp Nou reverse, Barca have gone 23 without defeat against Espanyol, tying the longest unbeaten run in any derby in LaLiga history. Anything other than an Espanyol win on Sunday would surpass Real Madrid’s 2000-2013 sequence against Atletico for the outright record.
In this stretch, the Blaugrana have recorded 18 wins and five draws, meaning they now have 101 victories against Espanyol in LaLiga. Only Espanyol again, against Madrid (104), have ever lost more matches to any one opponent in the competition.
As a player, Xavi had a role in 21 of those successes – his most against any team in LaLiga – with the 2009 result one of only two Espanyol wins against the great midfielder.
Blaugrana back in form
Xavi’s coaching career will do well to come close to matching his playing achievements – both in this fixture and as a whole – but there have been promising signs in recent matches.
Having beaten Deportivo Alaves before Atletico, Barca are looking for a third LaLiga win in a row. They last achieved such a run in April 2021 (six matches).
By contrast, Espanyol have lost their previous two and are winless in four, putting 11 points and nine places between themselves and Barca. At the end of 2021, just two points and two places had separated the pair, with Espanyol ninth and Barca seventh.
Four-midable or four-tunate?
As much as another victory on Sunday would be treasured, the success against Atletico was a real statement win for Xavi, seeing Barca net four in a single match for the first time since the season-opening 4-2 defeat of Real Sociedad.
Barca had been the last team to score four against Atleti in LaLiga, too, with Xavi in the line-up for the 4-1 triumph in December 2012.
In each of those games, however, the scoreline has not quite told the whole story. In 2012, Barca outperformed their 1.13 expected goals by 2.87. This time, they far exceeded their 0.63 xG – that difference of 3.37 the largest for any team in a LaLiga match this season.
Whether Barca can be quite so clinical on a consistent basis moving forward is another matter. Jordi Alba’s outrageous volley from a Dani Alves pass was worth just 0.05 xG.
Best form of attack is…
With Alves scoring as well as assisting Alba and Ronald Araujo also on the scoresheet, three of Barca’s four goals against Atleti came from defenders. Only Villarreal can match their eight such strikes this season.
Alves, the fourth-oldest player to net in LaLiga this century, will not add to his tally this week, though, after becoming the first Barca player since at least 2004-05 to score, assist and be sent off in the same league match.
But Espanyol will still have to contend with Adama Traore, who might have also been playing in defence had he joined Tottenham as a wing-back instead of returning to Camp Nou in a natural attacking role.
Traore impressed on his second Barca debut with an assist for Gavi, meaning he has two goal involvements in three games in Europe’s top five leagues – as many as in his previous 25 appearances. Espanyol have been warned.
