The weekend’s clash against mighty Barcelona will be a genuine baptism of fire for new Valencia coach Gary Neville, who was surprisingly elected to replace Nuno Espirito Santo.

The Catalans head into the game on the back of six straight league wins and no doubt they are the favourites to win at Mestalla as well.

Following some promising showings in the 2014/2015 campaign, Valencia entered the new season with big ambitions, but los Che just could not hit the ground running.

The 5-1 triumph at Celta Vigo that capped the run of 6 wins in 9 matches was expected to be just the boost the team needed to turn things around, but it instead had just the opposite effect.

And with Valencia going on to lose two of next three games in all competitions, the club chiefs decided to sack Nuno Espirito Santo and appointed Manchester United legend Gary Neville as his successor.

The former England coach faces a tough task in his first game in charge as los Che play host to red-hot Barcelona, but if his team can pull of a major surprise, it will definitely give them something to build on in months to come.

Gary Neville will have Alvaro Negredo and Pablo Piatti back in contention, but full-back Lucas Orban is out with a muscle problem.

Javi Fuego and Joao Cancelo are both banned, whereas Shkodran Mustafi, Rodrigo Moreno, Antonio Barragan and Diego Alves are out injured.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Ryan – Vezo, Santos, Abdennour, Gaya – Perez, Barbosa, Parejo – Feghouli, Alcacer, Piatti.

Just 13 games into the new season and Barcelona already look like the main candidate for the La Liga trophy, and not only because of the four-point cushion at the top.

The Catalans are playing great football at the moment, regardless of who is on the pitch, with the attacking trio looking better than ever.

The 4-0 triumph over Real Madrid in El Clasico was one of the high points of the current season, but Barca have since also hammered AS Roma (6-1), Real Sociedad (4-0) and Villanovense (6-1).

Barcelona now hope to pile more misery on Valencia and at the same time cement the first place in the standings, and they are 1.36 (4/11) to win at Mestalla.

A number of first team regulars will be recalled to the side after they were rested in midweek, but there are some problems for coach Luis Enrique as well.

Namely, Jeremy Mathieu and Sergi Roberto are both doubtful through injury and they are unlikely to play any part against Valencia.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Bravo – Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba – Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta – Messi, Suarez, Neymar.