Eibar 0 – Barcelona 2

There was yet another routine win in La Liga for Barcelona on Saturday.

Eibar, who have had an impressive season, were expected to give Barcelona a test but it didn’t quite pan out that way.

Luis Suarez opened the scoring on 16 minutes, with Leo Messi bagging yet another assist for Barcelona.

Barcelona had to wait until the 88th minute to feel fully comfortable, with Jordi Alba scoring their second goal.

Another player sent off against Barcelona…

Eibar’s battle for even a point was dealt a serious blow on 66 minutes when Chilean Fabian Orellana was sent off for two yellow cards.

The win means Barcelona are 10 points clear of second placed Atletico Madrid. Diego Simeone’s side play Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

The gap to Real Madrid, who now have two games in hand, is 20 points.

Barcelona could barely be better prepared, in terms of their league position and a place in the Copa del Rey final, for their Champions League tie with Chelsea which starts on Tuesday.

Insane Barcelona stats emerge after Eibar win

As soon as Barcelona’s win at Eibar was confirmed, Spanish statistician Mister Chip came out with some extraordinary numbers on Twitter:

• Of the last 23 sendings off in La Liga matches involving Barcelona, 22 of them have been against Barcelona’s rivals. This includes today’s red card for Orellana. Only one Barcelona player has been sent off in this time.
• Of the last 35 penalties given in La Liga matches involving Barcelona, 34 have been in favour of Barcelona, and one against.

Últimas 23 expulsiones en partidos de Liga del Barcelona:
1 del Barça
22 de los rivales (incluyendo la de hoy de Orellana)

Últimas 35 penaltis señalados en partidos de Liga del Barcelona:
34 a favor del Barça
1 a favor de los rivales

— MisterChip (Alexis) (@2010MisterChip) February 17, 2018

Are La Liga helping Barcelona?

It should first be pointed out that Mister Chip works for AS, the Madrid-based newspaper which does not hide the fact that they support Real Madrid.

As a result, the first response to the Tweet above is: “You forgot ‘Hala Madrid’ you bald creep!”

Nevertheless, Mister Chip is an extraordinary statistician and does not deserve this kind of abuse.

For many years, cries of “UEFAlona” would go up when Barcelona kept progressing in the Champions League and other sides would receive red cards and give away penalties.

But, this was mainly due to an extraordinarily good Barcelona side that kept the ball for record amounts of possession.

Are Barcelona just too good?!

The bottom line is that this Barcelona side is also extraordinarily good under Ernesto Valverde. The two stats above simply outline their brilliance.

If anything, as many Barcelona fans will argue, traditionally, it is the Catalans that have had more strife with referees in La Liga.

Barcelona are unbeaten in 24 La Liga games this season. They could reasonably now be expected to finish the campaign unbeaten.

Being undefeated for 31 games is also a new club record. Good luck Chelsea!