I'm convinced Barcelona will be deciders of this game, and on paper they're the best side to clinch alll three points. Espanyol is not that side you want to rotate your squad against, they're know for giving Barcelona headaches from the start of the game to the end of the game. Well for the records, Barcelona has scored 22 goals in the last five game played at home. As per Espanyol, they have lost three fixtures won one and drew one. This is not a great stat while traveling to Camp Nou.
You are thinking in the right direction, if you evaluate the results of the teams for the 11 rounds played, then Espanyol on average misses 2 goals per match, while Barcelona scores on average more than 3 goals per game, only these indicators show that the weak defense of Espanyol will not be able to cope with the attack of Barcelona and Espanyol is traditionally an easy opponent for Barcelona, so they need to win and get their three points. Real's game was postponed yesterday, so there is an opportunity to increase the gap from them.