Next Sunday, 4th of January 2015, a motivated Barcelona will travel to the Basque Country to measure forces with an inconsistent Real Sociedad at Anoeta for round 17 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, a match that Barça need to win in order to continue on Real Madrid’s trail at the top of the table and that the home side also needs to win in order to keep their closest contenders down in the table at bay.

After their goalless draw at Madrid against Getafe two rounds ago, Barcelona seem to have managed to rally their troops and continue their pursuit to La Liga’s leaders Real Madrid, who seem to be unstoppable so far. The Catalan team trashed the modest Huesca by 8-1 on a Copa del Rey match in the middle of December and a few days later applied a similar recipe to Cordoba, by hammering them 5-0 at Camp Nou. The erratic Uruguayan striker, Luis Suarez, netted in his first La Liga’s goal on a match where the usual suspect, Lionel Messi, added another two to his already significant goal tab.

Luis Enrique’s men are currently on a fantastic streak, without suffering a single defeat in their last eleven matches and they will certainly look to extent that excellent moment when they visit Real Sociedad at Anoeta. Nevertheless, next Sunday’s clash will surely be far from easy, especially if we have in mind that none of Barça’ close competitors (Atlético and Real Madrid) were defeated when they visited Anoeta. For this reason, the clash against the Basque team is of paramount importance for the Catalan side, who cannot allow any more slip ups if they still want to lift Liga BBVA’s trophy this season.

As for Real Sociedad, the Basque team has been having a season to forget so far and not even the arrival of the former Manchester United skipper, David Moyes, have helped them to put an end to their underachieving performances and results. The Scottish manager has, in fact, only won a single La Liga’s match since he is in charge and he is yet to take a solid stand at the historical Spanish side. The clash against Barcelona will certainly be a good opportunity for David Moyes to convince the demanding fans that he is the right man for the job and a win in that particular match could provide the team the motivation they need to overcome the weak overall performance they have been presenting so far this season.

Real Sociedad

Stats: W-1 L-1 D-3

Recent Form - DWDLD

Barcelona

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WWDWW

Possible Line-ups

Real Sociedad (4-4-1-1) - Zubikarai - C. Martínez - Gorka - I. Martínez - La Bella - Granero - Canales - Bergara - Castro - Prieto - Finnbogason

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Adriano - Mascherano - Piqué - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Xavi - Iniesta - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Prediction

Real Sociedad 1 Barcelona 2