Valencia, Spain- Barcelona continued their five-game unbeaten streak after beating Valencia 4-1 on Sunday. Fueled by Pierre-Emerick Aubamayang’s hat trick performance, Xavi Hernandez’s men put on an outstanding performance. Currently in fourth place in the La Liga table, Barcelona will undoubtedly look to chase down the league leaders, Real Madrid.
Barcelona outplayed Valencia in attack while managing to contain dangerous threats defensively. Marc-Andre Ter Stegen had four clutch saves to keep Valencia out of range the whole game. Full-backs Sergiño Dest and Jordi Alba joined the attack to provide more width, with the latter getting an assist.
Here is what to take away from Barça’s visit to The Mestalla.
Threatened Valencia
Moving forward, Valencia needs to keep its mistakes at a minimum. Their negative goal differential plays against them in a tricky position in the table. Two points away from eighth place and four away from 16th, a mid-table position can be dangerous ground to tread on. Bryan Gil and Carlos Soler, who combined for Valencia’s goal against Barcelona on Sunday, spoke upon their mistakes and were critical of the performance.
La Masia
Barcelona’s academy is known globally for producing some of the best talents in world football. From Lionel Messi to Pep Guardiola, at any point in their history, the club has relied on their academy for results, and it has paid off.
Xavi, a fellow La Masia graduate, is supportive of this philosophy and has made academy graduates regulars in the starting lineup. Pablo Martín Páez Gavira, or Gavi (17-years-old), has played over 1,300 minutes for Barcelona’s first team this season. Jordi Alba has over 1,500 minutes and Sergio Busquets is over 2,000.
Sometimes players are meant to play at a club and although not from La Masia, Pedri’s creative and evasive style of play resembles that of legendary Barça midfielders like Andres Iniesta. At The Mestalla, Pedri’s instant impact coming off the bench closed the game off. His performance raised praise for many, including his manager, highlighting his high level at such a young age.
New Signings
On the last day of the winter transfer market, Barcelona managed to sign Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the Gabonese international joins former La Masia graduate Adama Traore and rising star Ferran Torres. This transfer class has proven worthy to start, already contributing four goals and two assists in just seven games.
Their recent performances have been good enough to help the team go unbeaten in the last five matches. At The Mestalla, Torres and Aubamayang were the heart of the attack and lead the line for Barcelona.
