Barcelona will be looking to return to winning ways on Saturday when they host Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou.

Ernesto Valverde's side still top the table despite falling to their first defeat of the campaign in midweek, whereas Athletic are winless since the opening day of the season.

Barcelona

The shockwaves of Wednesday night's events at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque are still reverberating around Spanish football, and Barcelona will be thankful of having the chance to banish those memories so quickly.

By any measure, Leganes' come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the defending champions was a monumental upset - arguably one of the biggest in La Liga history.

It pitted the winless, bottom-of-the-table hosts against the unbeaten league leaders, a team competing in just their third top-flight campaign against one in its 88th consecutive La Liga season and with 25 titles to their name - including seven in the last 10 years.

It was also, unsurprisingly, Leganes' first ever win over Barcelona and only Barcelona's second defeat in their last 51 La Liga outings, having been beaten just once en route to the title last term.

Of course, such slip-ups do happen - rarely ones of such magnitude, admittedly - but what Barcelona must do now is bounce back immediately, having been handed a reprieve just hours after their own defeat when Sevilla hammered Real Madrid to ensure that Valverde's side remain top of the table.

Failure to win on Saturday would make for a miserable week at Camp Nou, having also squandered a lead to eventually draw at home to Girona last Sunday - a result marred by a contentious red card but which ended Barca's perfect start to the season.

Perfection seems like a long time ago now, and you have to go back to December 2016 for the last time Barca failed to win three successive La Liga games. Not since April of that year have they lost two in a row.

The importance of regaining their winning form is heightened by a difficult run of fixtures coming up; Valencia, Sevilla and Real Madrid - all of whom finished in the top seven last season - provide the next three opponents in the league, and that run is interspersed with Champions League matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan.

Barcelona are unbeaten in their last 32 home matches across all competitions, though - a run which includes 28 wins - while you have to go back to September 2016 for their last league defeat at Camp Nou - a run of 39 games.

There is a sense that this is a Barca team who can be attacked, though, having failed to keep a clean sheet in more than a month now and conceded seven times in the past four games.

Recent La Liga form: WWWWDL
Recent form (all competitions): WWWWDL

Athletic Bilbao

Whereas little Leganes have plunged Barcelona to the verge of a mini-crisis, they are the only team that Athletic Bilbao have managed to beat so far this season.

Eduardo Berizzo's side began their campaign with a 2-1 home triumph over the relative minnows, but they have since been held to three successive draws before succumbing to their first defeat of the campaign on Wednesday night.

Athletic conceded three times in the final 25 minutes to fall to a 3-0 defeat at home to Villarreal in midweek, suddenly turning what had been an unbeaten start into a fairly disappointing one.

Expectations may have been tempered by last season's 16th-placed finish - a hugely underwhelming campaign following four successive top-seven finishes - but Berizzo will still have hoped for more than sitting 15th in the table at this stage of the campaign, particularly as four of their opening five games have come at home.

It has very much been a mixed bag for Athletic so far, with a 2-2 home draw against newly-promoted Huesca being followed by respectable draws against Real Madrid and away to Real Betis.

The prospect of back-to-back defeats now looms for Athletic, though, and they make the daunting trip to Camp Nou having won just one La Liga match on the road so far this calendar year.

The 11 away games so far in 2018 have yielded only seven points from a possible 33, with Athletic losing six of those and drawing four in addition to the solitary victory in April.

Berizzo's side also take on the league's most prolific attack having failed to keep a clean sheet so far this season, while stretching back to last term they have only prevented the opposition from scoring once in their last 15 outings.

Recent La Liga form: WDDDL

Team News

Luis Suarez was one of the players rested for the midweek defeat to Leganes, but he is expected to come back into the starting lineup in place of Munir El Haddadi for this one.

The likes of Jordi Alba and Nelson Semedo are also pushing for recalls, and Valverde could decide to make further changes to a defence which has looked flimsy in their past two games.

Gerard Pique has been particularly culpable for the goals conceded in the last week, although dropping the stalwart would be a bold move from Valverde despite having Clement Lenglet back from suspension.

The recent results means that Valverde is likely to name a full-strength team rather than resting players ahead of Wednesday's Champions League match at Tottenham.

Athletic, meanwhile, could still be without evergreen striker Aritz Aduriz - the club's top scorer in each of the past six seasons - who has not featured since the opening game of the season.

Aduriz is nearing a return from the muscle problem, though, and could feature at some point if he passes a late fitness test.

Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Ter Stegen; Semedo, Lenglet, Umtiti, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Coutinho; Messi, Suarez, Dembele

Athletic Bilbao possible starting lineup:
Simon; De Marcos, Alvarez, Martinez, Yuri; Benat, D Garcia; Susaeta, R Garcia, Muniain; Williams

Head To Head

Athletic Bilbao have not won an away game against Barcelona in any competition since November 2001, losing 17 of their 21 visits to Camp Nou since then.

Home and away, Barca have won the last four meetings across all competitions and each of the last nine in La Liga, stretching back to December 2013.

The Blaugrana won both meetings 2-0 last season, with Lionel Messi scoring in each of those games.

We say: Barcelona 3-1 Athletic Bilbao

Barcelona cannot afford to let this slump continue for much longer, and if Valverde goes for a full-strength side to arrest the slide then it is hard to see past a home win in this match.