~Snip
In the last two matches we have seen Barcelona players perform brilliantly against two giant teams like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Barcelona have scored a total of 8 goals and conceded just one goal in the two matches. From this it can be assumed that both the defense and attack of Barcelona are very strong now. Lewandowski, Raphinha and Yamal are all capable of performing well now.
Espanyol is quite a weak opponent. And I have never seen Barcelona lose against this team. But Barcelona shared points with Espanyol in perhaps one match last season. But I don't think the same thing will happen again this season. Because this season Barcelona players are also very confident. And consistently in every match we see good performances from Barcelona players. It is expected that Barcelona team will win against Espanyol by a big margin.
Barcelona is unbeaten in its last 6 meetings against Espanyol, but Barcelona lost 6 points from those 6 matches due to 3 draws. This means that Barcelona still has the potential to lose points in this match if Espanyol plays well, but considering that Barcelona is in their best form, a win is more likely to be expected. After all, this is a home game for Barcelona and they should be well motivated to secure another 3 points to be 9 points ahead of Real Madrid.
Especially for the home match against Espanyol, I think Hansi Flick was forced to rotate several players to keep them fit for the busy schedule. Barcelona has played 3 matches from 20 October to 26 October, while Barcelona has 3 matches between 3 November to 10 November. Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Lewandowski could be rested, but not all three at once.