Barcelona have started the LaLiga season with two consecutive wins despite missing several key players, raising expectations around the prospects of new head coach, Hansi Flick.
Topping the table along with Celta Vigo on six points, Barcelona travel to Rayo Vallecano, who are unbeaten after shocking Real Sociedad 2-1 and holding Getafe to a hard-fought goalless draw on Saturday.
"The goal in Barcelona should always be to win the league," Flick told a press conference on Monday.
"Sure, it's a long road, but we have started well, although everything can change quickly.
"Now we are happy about our start and we are confident. We are not looking ahead to May, our focus is to keep momentum in the next game.
"We are very satisfied with what the team is doing on the pitch. The quality of the training sessions is good, the players are very focused, the intensity is good, and you can see that in the matches."
Vallecano will rely on their raucous Vallecas Stadium on Tuesday to help stop in-form Barcelona, who convincingly beat tough opponents in Valencia and Athletic Bilbao to ease the pressure surrounding a club in turmoil on and off the pitch.
Barcelona endured a trophyless campaign last season, resulting in the controversial firing of Xavi, with Flick being brought in to help them regain the LaLiga title from Real Madrid.
The club is having deepening financial issues as they try to reduce their first-team wage bill to comply with LaLiga's financial controls. If they cannot, they will not be able to register new signings, like Spain international Dani Olmo, who joined in a €60million deal from RB Leipzig.
The Spaniard scored 29 goals and added 34 assists across 148 appearances in all competitions for Leipzig, for whom he created 32 chances in 21 Bundesliga outings in 2023-24.
And at Euro 2024, Olmo became the first Spanish player to score in three successive European Championship games, despite only starting three of La Roja's seven matches.
Ilkay Gundogan, one of their most influential players last season, left as a free agent to join former club Manchester City last week, while Clement Lenglet and Vitor Roque have both left on season-long loans.
Flick may still be without Olmo for their game against Vallecano, with the registration process out of the German's hands.
"I'm hopeful I can finally can count on him tomorrow," Flick added.
"I also hoped for him in the last game, but things are the way they are. It would be fantastic, but we'll see what happens. It's something we can't control; neither the player, the team, nor the coach. We know it's a difficult circumstance.
"I've spoken to him, it's a difficult situation. Of course, he is not happy, but he knows the circumstances. He is fit and ready to play if the call comes."
Premier League MD2: Lucky winners and unlucky losers
We're into the swing of the new Premier League season, with matchday two bringing plenty more thrills and spills.
Big wins for Chelsea and Manchester City were accompanied by hat-tricks for Noni Madueke and Erling Haaland, while Everton's miserable start to 2024-25 continued as they were thrashed 4-0 at Tottenham.
But who were the lucky winners and the unlucky losers to emerge from this weekend's set of fixtures, according to the underlying metrics?
With the help of Opta data, let's find out.
Lucky winners: Chelsea
While Chelsea's thumping 6-2 win at Wolves was the most emphatic victory of a goal-laden matchday, perhaps fortune smiled on the Blues as they got off the mark under Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea's six goals came from an expected goals (xG) figure of just 1.68, with the Blues giving up chances worth 1.96 xG at the other end.
Madueke was joined on the scoresheet by Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Joao Felix as Maresca became the first manager in Premier League history to see his team score six goals in his first away game at the helm.
Unlucky losers: Wolves
It might be a tad generous to suggest Wolves were unfortunate after shipping six goals on home soil, four of them coming in a miserable second half as they attempted to chase the game.
However, it is certainly fair to say the scoreline did not tell the full story of a game in which Gary O'Neil's men managed 12 shots to Chelsea's 14 and bettered the Blues' 21 touches in the area, registering 25.
Chelsea's xG overperformance of 4.31 is the largest of the season by some margin, with Brighton and Spurs both outdoing their underlying figures by 1.57 in their victories over Everton.
No team managed a bigger overperformance than that throughout the entirety of last season, either, with Newcastle's eight goals from 3.92 xG versus Sheffield United the closest any team got.
Lucky winners: Arsenal
Chelsea's win at Molineux was one of just two games in the Premier League on matchday two where the victors lost the xG battle.
But on a weekend where justice was largely done, Arsenal could perhaps count themselves fortunate to leave Aston Villa with a 2-0 victory.
The Gunners accumulated just 0.87 xG to Villa's 1.28, but goals from Leandro Trossard and Thomas Partey maintained their 100% start to the season.
This is the third time they have won their first two matches of a top-flight campaign without conceding a goal, having previously done so in 1924-25 and 1971-72.
Unlucky losers: Aston Villa
Villa were a lucky winner on matchday one as they escaped the London Stadium with a 2-1 victory over West Ham, but there was to be no repeat against Arsenal.
Unai Emery's team only hit the target with three of their 11 shots, and striker Ollie Watkins was particularly wasteful as he failed to net from two efforts worth 0.87 xG.
That is the second-highest figure registered by a player who failed to score in a Premier League match this season, after Nottingham Forest's Nikola Milenkovic versus Southampton on Saturday (0.98 xG).
JFF congratulates U-14 Reggae Boyz on CFU Challenger Series triumph
The Jamaica Football Federation expressed great elation after the country’s National U14 Team clinched the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Under 14 Challenger Series in Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend.
Jamaica capped a dominant display throughout the tournament by defeating French Guiana 7-1 in the final at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Tobago on Sunday.
In the 6 matches played, Jamaica scored 25 goals and only conceded two with only one of them coming from open play.
Their results in the tournament were as follows: 2-0 vs St. Kitts & Nevis, 6-0 vs Aruba, 2-0 vs Trinidad & Tobago, 5-0 vs Aruba, 3-1 vs Puerto Rico and 7-1 vs French Guiana.
President of the Jamaica Football Federation Michael Ricketts expressed commendation for the team and the coaching staff in a press release on Monday.
“I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to our National U14 team for their performances in the recently concluded CFU U14 Challenger Series in Trinidad and Tobago. I would like to commend the players for their grit and determination and work rate as they played 6 matches in just over a week.”
He continued: “I would also like to congratulate Coach Andrew Peart and his staff for their hard work in preparing the team for the tournament and I am so delighted that it has paid off and it is a good feeling knowing that we will be returning to Jamaica with a trophy.”
General Secretary of the JFF Mr. Dennis Chung also shared commendation for the team.
“I would like to congratulate the U14 Team on being crowned champions of the Tier 1 group, and also commend the staff. This performance is a result of the deliberate effort to adopt the FIFA TDS programme, which is already bearing some fruit.”
Brighton sign O'Riley from Celtic on five-year deal
Brighton have announced the signing of Matt O'Riley from Celtic on a five-year contract.
The Denmark international was signed for a fee believed to be more than £25million, a new record transfer fee received by a Scottish club.
O'Riley joined Celtic in January 2022 from MK Dons, going on to make 124 appearances for the Scottish champions. He scored 27 goals and registered 35 assists in all competitions for them.
In the Scottish Premiership last season, only Lawrence Shankland (24) scored more goals than O'Riley (18), while he got the most assists (13).
Of his goals, 13 were scored from big chances, while he created the third-most chances of any player in the competition (93), behind only James Tavernier and Danny Armstrong.
"He plays a very specialist position; he is very good at occupying and attacking the right space. He likes making deep runs, and knows when to attack at the right time," Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler said of his new signing.
"He enjoys getting forward and attacking the opponent's penalty area, but he also has a good defensive instinct. That balance makes him special. He is a great character and has a good ambition to succeed and that's something which is very important for us."
Celtic had rejected five bids from Atalanta from O'Riley, with their highest offer being £21.5m plus add-ons.
The 23-year-old is Brighton's eighth signing of the transfer window, following Yakuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Malick Yalcouye, Brajan Gruda, Ibrahim Osman, and Georginio Rutter into the club.
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