Villarreal v Barcelona

Villarreal vsBarcelona Preview

The Spanish top flight action continues on Sunday and features this upcoming La Liga clash between Villarreal and Barcelona at the Estadio de la Cerámica with the hosts looking to build some momentum following last week's win away from home at Mallorca, while Barcelona also head into this encounter on the back of three points last week.

Villarreal started this season's La Liga campaign in disappointing fashion as they were dealt a 2-1 defeat on home soil in their opening game of the season by Real Betis as Villarreal were unable to halt a two-match winless run from the end of last season's campaign.

However, a 1-0 win away from home at Mallorca has got the hosts off the mark with all three points at the Estadi Mallorca Son Moix which will give them a welcome boost of confidence prior to this upcoming encounter with last season's Spanish top flight title winners, Barcelona.

Results overall though have been pretty promising for Villarreal as the hosts have lost just twice in their last 10 matches, while on home soil, Villarreal have lost just once in their previous six games at their Estadio de la Cerámica.

Despite losing three of their final four games of last season's La Liga campaign losing to Real Sociedad, Real Valladolid and Celta Vigo, Barcelona still managed to claim another domestic league title and by a significant margin of 10 points over their old rivals, Real Madrid.

The early signs in the first couple of games of this new Spanish top flight season appear to be good as well for Barcelona who have picked up four points from their opening two games of this new term which have come in the shape of a 0-0 draw away from home at Getafe along with last week's 2-0 home win against Cadiz.

The pessimist would therefore point towards Barcelona managing to capture just two wins from their last six matches in La Liga but the realist knows that Barcelona will be fully focused for this upcoming trip to Villarreal as the visitors look to not only pick up all three points here this Sunday but look to catch up with the teams above them in the early La Liga standings.

Nevertheless, Barcelona do need to improve upon a sequence of just one win on the road from their last six outings which includes three defeats for Xavi's men.

Villarreal v Barcelona Verdict

Villarreal have captured just two wins from their last 11 matches overall in all competitions which includes being handed six defeats and the hosts hold a poor record against Barcelona in recent exchanges.

Barcelona have won six of the previous seven meetings against Villarreal and the visitors look set to continue their dominance on Sunday.

Therefore, our main bet will be Barcelona win @ 2.00

Other side bets worth considering:

Barcelona win & Over 2.5 goals @ 2.87

Correct score: Barcelona 2-1 @ 9.00