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Barcelona play hosts to Atletico Madrid on Saturday and will look to put an indifferent run of form behind them that has seen them fall behind the early pace setters in La Liga.
Barca have found themselves compared to Ballerina’s of late – surrounded by 2-2’s, as they continue their stuttering start to the season.
The Catalan club could only muster score draws against Real Sociedad and Valencia in La Liga to leave them four points off the pace of league leaders Read Betis and dropped points to AC Milan in the Champions League by the same result.
The reigning European Champions looked to be back to their best as they put eight past Osasuna before the 2-2 draw with Valencia left boss Pep Guardiola perplexed over his team’s indifferent form.
Atletico meanwhile appear to still be coming to terms with the loss of key players Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan, who left in the summer transfer window, but appear to be finding their feet and secured a convincing 4-0 win against Sporting Gijon in their last outing.
Barca’s defence has been far from watertight this season with Gerard Pique missing and Carles Puyol still not 100 percent, and they will likely be given their sternest test of the season as they come up against Atletico’s secret weapon.
Despite an inconsistent start to the season the visitors will be able to call upon one of the most in form strikers in Europe – Radamel Falcao.
The former Porto forward has hit the ground running in La Liga and has found the net five times already to top the goals scoring charts in Spain ahead of the likes of Lionel Messi and David Villa, and will hope to keep his rich vein of form going with a goal against the reigning champions.
They will go into the game without the services of Dutch midfielder Ibrahim Afellay who faces a long spell out of the game after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, meaning an operation and several months on the sidelines.
Andres Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez are also still sidelined for Barcelona while Atletico will be without new loan signing Diego, who is still some way away from match fitness.
There was some good news for the Madrid side however, with Diego Godin announced as fit to join his team-mates for the trip to the Nou Camp.
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