10 PM: The league leaders face their fifth away game of the season aiming to make it five wins from five on the road.
Barça have proved to be totally effective on the road so far this season and are the only team to boast a 100% record away from home in La Liga, as well as having scored more goals than any other team, 14 compared to Atletico Madrid, who’ve managed 7 away from the Vicente Calderon. The league leaders will be looking to make it five out of five on Saturday night when they return to Vallecas, a ground where they won 0-7 last season.
Alves back in squad
Tito Villanova welcomes back Dani Alves for Barça’s second successive away trip after the injury he picked up against Real Madrid earlier this month and Sergio Busquets also returns after sitting out the midweek European game suspended. On the minus side, Mascherano misses out after last week’s red card at the Riazor, whilst Sergi Roberto returned to the B team for Friday night’s match at the Mini Estadi. The squad is also without the injured Piqué, Puyol, Abidal, Muniesa, Cuenca and Thiago.
Unpredictable Rayo
Rayo are one of the league’s most unpredictable outfits this season and are the team with the third highest number of goals in games they’ve been involved in -28, 11 scored and 17 conceded. They’ve had great results such as the 1-2 win in Betis and they very nearly came back from 4-0 down at the Calderon, but they also suffered a heavy 6-1 thrashing at Valladolid. Against Barça, Paco Jémez seems unlikely to risk the three man defence he used at the start of the campaign, but which he has abandoned in recent games.