After a very good start, crucial 3pts won in Madrigal ( Villareal stadium ), one of the most dificult stadium to get a result in Spain. We still have some dificult games to play without Suarez and with may injuries in the squad, im still confident about our chance to lift the league this year.

Here is the important games of the first leg :

2- Villareal Away : Done, 3 points hardly won.

3- Bilbao Home : I believe we can get all our points at home if we stay strong, Bilbao looks dangerous specially in San Mames, in Camp Nou things would be more complicated for them than for Barça.

5- Malaga Away : Not in a good form lately, but Malaga are dangerous at home, and raise their level against though opposition.

7- Clasico Home : No need to explain the importance of this game, pride and rivalry apart, this is a 6 pts game, rather take 3 points lead over the rival then give him 3pts.

12- Sevilla Home : Not really scarring fixture despite the new notiriety of Sevilla as EL winners, more worried about the away than the home.

13- Valencia Away : With the arrivals of good players like Rodrigo and imminent move of Negredo/Guarin, Mestalla seems to be scarring again, despite having some problems lately, Valencia always managed to get points from Real/Barça specially at home.

14- Derby Home : Exciting fixture for Barça natives, but the derby at home wont be that complicated to win, like the Sevillan home (12), they are good to be noticed but in a Barça good day, the 3pts are granted.

17- Sociedad Away : After their poor EL compain, the loss of Antoine Griezmann and their bad start of the season, i was rulling them out of the pts competition, until their comeback against Madrid 4-2...

18- Atleti Home : Home or away, Atleti is hard to beat, best defense of Spain so far and arguably in Europe, complicated to take all poits from them even at home.

I believe we wont loose many points in the first leg, we have only 5 complicated away games and we won the second most complicated so far, 4 away games remaining and hosting contenders in Camp Nou.
We must finish first of the first leg by 4-7 points margin, the second leg will be more complicated with 2 away games in Madrid : Bernabeu and Calderon. Without forgetting the Hell of San Mames ( Bilbao ) and the very special Sevilla away, the home games arent all granted too, but in a good year, barça barely let a point inside Camp Nou against smaller opposition.

My conclusion : Perfect schedjule considering the bans and the injuries, we have time to adapt without loosing important point to the title competition, but this schedjule will be only good if we can take the lead of League, considering what is waiting us in the second part better win Home Clasico and Atleti and have some margin, because the second leg aways in Madrid would be very hard to win.

What do you think about it ?
For Liga Fans, RM, Atleti or Valencia fans, you can post your team table here and point the tough games of your team first leg...

Visca Barça, we must win it this year. :)

R.I.P. Real Madrid

We will most likely finish 3rd this season again (except the gap will show) unless Ancelotti can find out how to cope without a DM. I feel bad for the guy. He doesn't have the control over transfers that Mourinho did.

You must be joking :) You have new players, we have new players and coach : The future is still undecided in Spain.
You were playing fast counters against big teams, but now you made an opposite style signing, Isco/James/Kroos/Modric are all ball holders so you will logically switch into a posession style, this style change may take time to adapt, the result could be magical or not, im confident that Carlo will do great.
Its a pitty not to keep key players stability, used to their role with some automatisms with their teammates, but Perez took other choices, too soon to judge them, all the signings are young and promising...

Lets come back to the title race, with the actual schedjule of 1st leg, finishing behind Barça isnt a decepetion as we have an easier first leg hosting you first at Camp Nou, if we have a small margin in January then you will have a big chance finishing the league very strong with an easier table, if you are first in January, unlike a very bad month you will be champions.

I cant imagine Atleti winning it again, last year was already a miracle ( of course deserved ), but now that everyone is aware of their strenght, many clubs would park the bus and they do not have Costa ( important goals scorer ), i see them 3rd unless Simeone prove me wrong.

Here is your league table, complicated start indeed.

To be honest, La Liga is getting so damn good that all the teams are difficult to beat now. There are no 'easy' teams as there were 4-5 years ago. There is a possibility Barca and Madrid will lose in every match they play.

Wanna watch Barca winning again!

There were never easy teams, ask Valencian fans who stress each single game, the level of competition between Barça/Real was supernatural, last year we witnessed a very human season for our respective clubs.
La liga players didnt changed, the level didnt changed, all these arguments were because of Messi/Ronaldo incredible stats, now look at Zlatan stats, Suarez's or Costa last year before injury.
Its easy to justify their incredible stats with th eleague strengh, and its not fair, some were saying that if Ronaldo/Messi come back to EPL they wouldnt be able to replicate the stats, i actually think the opposite, more space = more goals for Messi/Ronaldo...
Suarez and Costa are proving that EPL defenses can be trashed each week if the player has the level to do so, so all those claims mainly established by Lodatz and Co, what we used to believe too because we just couldnt believe something else without being in a direct fight with lodzy, now other possibilities can describe this era rather than rival weakness. ( Did anyone said that the defenses in EPL were weak when Suarez/Aguero had +1 goal per game rate ? ) Nobody, if those same players did it in Spain it the only argument you will hear, weak defense + weak keeper, wich is completely wrong.
Maybe the players Messi/CR7 were at their peak and its complicated now to do the same, i remember Barça was able 80 per cent of time to score before reaching 10minutes, killing hopes quickly and dictating the game, we had a season with Messi-Etoo-Henry up front, Xavi-Iniesta-Yaya Touré in midlefield, we also had Zlatan-Messi- Henry then Messi explodes in his new role at Barça until parking the bus era.
I think now Spanish teams have back the belief to take points that they lost against Barça/Real, some teams used to give up quickly at 0-2 and think about the next game rather than trying an impossible comeback against the Spanish giants.
Now you see clearly that they do not have this mentality, Sociedad showed it against Madrid, many teams did well in Europe and that gave them confidence, i believe psychology arguments are forgotten by us while it has an important place in a Football game, i' ll try to find a good analyst to explain Liga teams progression, my point isnt clear either and many aspects of the game imo is explaining this not just a matter of level change.

Eibar parking a big bus, 0-0 half time, please dont drop points, dont drop, dooooont !

Eibar played very compactly till 60' but Xavi finally broke the deadlock

Yeah thanks fred, happy for the win. Congrats for City beating Spurs again and for Aguero performence.

Can't believe Barca haven't yet conceded a goal in La Liga. Defense is much better this season.

barcelona's defense is outstanding this season!

We have been a little lucky, oppenents hit the crossbar twice or 3 tree times, and Eibar just missed an open goal occasion, but yes our defensive problems have decreased drastically.
Our weak point in Defense are wingers, Alves is aging and Alba is good but not convincing, Mathieu playing Lb could be an interesting solution, he is doing awesome.

@the game, @chelsea8 we just bought mathieu and we have c bravo and vermaelen is coming soon.

@ tiki taka - Do you expect Suarez to start the Classico? And hows Rakitic been doing. Been busy with a new job so havent followed a lot of football this season.

I expect him to start, Pedro have been off form and Munir is too young to start in this game, Suarez doesnt need adaptation and he played plenty of big games, i would start him if i had the power.
For Rakitic, he did well but Xavi isnt done yet maybe Xavi could play second half as first sub if needed.
Piqué almost cots us a goal in last game firt half, he still comits some easy marking mistakes, we have a good chance of winning the domestic league if we do well against Madrid teams, for CL it would be dificult, many contenders this year we needs to be lucky.

Bravo is amazing buy...This guy is incredible...Let's see him vs.Real in amazing form again!

@crofan ter stegen might play instead, sadly, because he did awfully against psg.

barcelonas defence is good alright, Mathieu is and was (while he was at Valencia) an underrated player

@liomessi Yeah,he will probably not play again...That match was awful for him.