Mighty Barcelona take on high-flying Athletic Bilbao in what should be an enthralling encounter at San Mames.

Athletic Bilbao are in impressive form at the moment, so Barcelona players are probably ruing the fact that they couldn’t face los Leones at least few weeks later.

The Basques needed some time to get used to the demands of new coach Marcelo Bielsa, with two points from first five La Liga games enough to worry everyone at the club.

Nevertheless, the 2:0 Europa League win over newly rich Paris Saint-Germain showed that los Leones are getting back on track, and the team have been in impressive form ever since.

Athletic went on to get 11 points from next 5 league games, whereas four points from the double header against Salzburg saw them clinch their place in the Europa League knockout rounds.

Taking all this into account, odds of 4.00 (3/1) offered by Bet365 on Athletic not to lose could be worth a shot.

With Borja Ekiza unlikely to recover in time and Carlos Gurpegui a long-term worry, Marcelo Bielsa is expected to field the same line-up that brought all three points from Salzburg.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Iraizoz – Iraola, Javi Martinez, Amorebieta, Aurtenetxe – Iturraspe, Herrera, De Marcos – Susaeta, Llorente, Muniain.

After a quite a while, Barcelona are not leading the title race in La Liga, although that fact doesn’t seem to be affecting team’s performances.

The Catalans have experienced some problems at the start to the season, as witnessed by three draws in ten league games, but they are slowly raising their form and looking for their chance to return to the top of the standings.

Following the 5:0 win over Mallorca, Pep Guardiola’s side scored four in their Champions League clash with Viktoria Plzen, although their opponents did have a man sent off midway through the first half.

The Catalans are likely to face a much tougher task against high-flying Athletic at their Cathedral, so odds of 1.29 (2/7) offered by Ladbrokes do not represent a real value for money.

With the battle for possession likely to be order of the day at San Mames, Pep Guardiola will field his side accordingly and he is set to make several changes.

Xavi, Villa and Iniesta are all set to start after being rested in recent weeks, whereas Gerard Pique will replace Javier Mascherano at the back.

Alexis Sanchez has finally returned into action, but he is likely to start on bench as Guardiola plans to use Iniesta in attack.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Valdes – Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal – Fabregas, Busquets, Xavi – Iniesta, Messi, Villa.