Goals are usually guaranteed whenever Hansi Flick’s Barcelona side take to the field, both because of their impressive attacking talent and their risky approach to defending. Barcelona have seen 3+ goals in each of their last five matches across all competitions, failing to keep a clean sheet in any of those matches.

Barcelona have lost three of those games, which may just act as a bit of a wake up call to Hansi Flick that he may have to reconfigure how Barcelona defend, as sides are starting to work out and exploit their high line. This is further illustrated by the fact that Barcelona have conceded 12 goals across their 10 matches this season - the most of any side currently in the top five of La Liga.

Elche have seen over 2.5 goals in three of their last five matches across all competitions. They are likely to be involved in a high-scoring game here with Barcelona dictating the tempo. They’ll also be aware of the fact that Barcelona have been struggling to keep clean sheets recently and can take this opportunity to try and cause an upset.

Barcelona have had a few teething issues so far this season, mainly defensively, but this hasn’t impacted their record at home so far this season. Barcelona have won all four of their home games in La Liga this term, netting 13 goals across those games - more than any other side in the division.

Barcelona’s defensive issues have mainly been on the road, with 10 of the 12 goals they’ve conceded coming in their away games. The dominance that Barcelona have shown in their home games so far this season should lead to Hansi Flick’s side controlling this game and having the attacking talent to pick up all three points.

Barcelona ran out 3-0 winners in the most recent head-to-head clash between the sides, and came away 4-0 winners when the sides clashed with Elche as the home side. Barcelona’s home win in this fixture a few seasons ago was aided by an early red card for Elche, but Barcelona can dominate this game even without an extra body this time around.

Andre Silva has proven to be an effective frontman for Elche this season with the 29-year-old netting four goals across his nine appearances in La Liga this term, with six of those being starts.

Silva has achieved this tally from 19 shots (3.15 per 90), which is a shot count that suggests he can cause Barcelona issues here. Hansi Flick’s side have failed to keep a clean sheet across their last five matches across all competitions, so we can anticipate that Elche will have a few opportunities in this encounter.

Silva had three shots in his most recent La Liga assignment as Elche fell to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Espanyol. Silva had 22 shots across his 501 minutes of action in the Bundesliga last season (3.95 per 90), illustrating the consistency of his shot count in recent seasons.

There aren’t many ways to stop Lamine Yamal without hauling him down. This is what has led to Yamal being one of the most consistently fouled players in Europe at the age of just 18. He’s won 10 fouls across his six appearances in La Liga this season (1.97 per 90).

We can expect this foul won count to continue to rise as the season unfolds, seeing as Yamal won 60 fouls across his 35 appearances in La Liga last season (1.89 per 90). These metrics show that Yamal’s fouls won count stays consistent over a larger sample size.

His opponent here is likely to be Adria Pedrosa, who has committed six fouls across just 249 minutes of action in La Liga this season (2.17 per 90). Pedrosa, like most full backs lining up against Yamal, will struggle to contain the winger who can now be considered one of the best players in world football.