Barcelona vs Valladolid October 5, 2013

FC Barcelona return to the Camp Nou tomorrow, as they prepare to host lowly Real Valladolid and secure their eighth successive victory under the guidance of Argentine head coach, Gerardo Martino. With seven wins from seven in La Liga, Barcelona are edging ever closer to Real Madrid’s record of nine wins – a record they could fittingly beat with an El Clasico victory in three weeks time – but with their 1-0 win over Celtic on Tuesday, the Blaugrana also grabbed their seventh successive win in all competitions.

Spain's La Liga returns to action this weekend with a full slate of matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Villarreal hosted Granada on Friday night to kick off the weekend, with nine more matches set to follow throughout the weekend. In these slides, we recap all the scores from all the games.

No disrespect to either Real Valladolid, or Barcelona’s next opposition after the international break, Osasuna, but that streak should extend to nine over the coming weeks, even if Barça have been somewhat ravaged by injuries. Lionel Messi is sidelined, as are regular starters Javier Mascherano, Jordi Alba and club captain Carles Puyol – and the squad that was tipped to be "too thin" to deal with an injury crisis is coping admirably.

The defense that supposedly needed desperate reinforcements has conceded just once in its last five matches and kept a staggering four clean sheets in its last four away fixtures; in fact, pretty much everything is going according to plan for Gerardo Martino. His rotation policy has been well-received and if the past few weeks are any indication, Martino might etch his name into the record books sooner rather than later.

Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdés; Alves, Piqué, Bartra, Montoya; Busquets, Xavi, Roberto; Alexis, Fàbregas, Neymar

Valladolid (4-2-3-1): Marino; Rukavina, Rueda, Valiente, Pena; Baraja, Rossi; Ebert, Osorio, Omar; Guerra

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