Good afternoon and welcome to Sports Mole's live text coverage of the La Liga clash between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou.
The hosts come into this match looking to bounce back from their first defeat of the season in midweek, although they remain top of the table on goal difference.
Athletic also saw their unbeaten start to the campaign come to an end during the midweek round of fixtures, leaving now winless since the opening day.
Make sure you don't miss a moment of the action courtesy of our minute-by-minute updates below.
The hosts are bidding to improve a miserable week this afternoon, while Athletic are looking to capitalise on a shaky period of form for the champions.
We will have a close look at both teams a little later, but first let's check out the team news...
Well the headline news is that Lionel Messi misses out for the home side tonight - a huge call by any manager at any time, but one made even bigger by the fact that Barcelona are not in good form right now.
Messi has scored eight goals in as many games so far this season - five of which have come in six league outings - but Valverde clearly has one eye on the upcoming fixtures and leaves the maestro out for this one. Brave decision!
The Uruguayan is yet to hit his best form this season, but Barcelona clearly missed him for long spells of that Leganes game, with replacement Munir unable to get on the same wavelength as Messi and Dembele.
Messi's place in the team is essentially taken by Nelson Semedo, who comes in at right-back to force Sergi Roberto into the midfield three. However, Messi is not the only Barcelona stalwart to miss out today, with Sergio Busquets also dropping out to be replaced by Arturo Vidal.
Alongside Lenglet is Gerard Pique, who has been particularly culpable for the recent dropped points with some very questionable defending - including giving the ball straight to the attacker for the winning goal in midweek.
Having said that, it was expected that he would name a full-strength team given their recent form, so the exclusions of Messi and Busquets are particularly interesting and will open him up to more criticism should it backfire.
The 37-year-old has been Athletic's top scorer in each of the past six seasons so, while his increasing age may see him play less of a role as this term goes on, he remains an integral part of the team.
The youngster made a string of impressive saves to earn his side a point against Real Madrid earlier this season, and another performance on that level tonight will only enhance his burgeoning reputation in what is his first season of senior football for Athletic.
Alvarez, Dani Garcia, Balenziaga and Susaeta come into the team, while it is also expected to be a slightly different formation with Yuri and Susaeta providing support for Inaki Williams up front.
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Of course, win today and then Messi will be fresh going into a difficult run of fixtures which culminates with El Clasico, but a defeat this afternoon and suddenly even more questions are being asked of a manager around whom there have been misgivings from the start.
The midweek fixture saw bottom take on top and a winless team versus an unbeaten team, but the victory did not flatter Leganes, who only really survived one scare after scoring twice in the space of 69 seconds to win the game.
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It has been a miserable week for Valverde's side, then, although everything should be kept in context and they are far from a crisis at the moment, still sitting as they do top of the La Liga table.
As things stand, La Blaugrana still sit top of the standings on goal difference, and at least one of their closest challengers are guaranteed to drop more points this evening when Real host Atletico in the Madrid derby.
Interspersed within that run of domestic fixtures are key Champions League encounters with Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan too, so this could potentially be a season-defining period of the season for Barcelona - hence the risk to rest Messi.
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This Barcelona team does look like it can be got at, though, and Pique in particular has looked shaky during a four-game run which has seen them fail to keep a clean sheet and concede seven goals.
Indeed, Barca are unbeaten in their last 32 home matches across all competitions - winning 28 of those in a run stretching back to August 2017, while that unbeaten streak stretches 39 matches to September 2016 when only counting league games.
Of course, they would prefer Barcelona's poor form to be coupled with their own good form, but that is not the case and Athletic arrive at the Camp Nou - of all places - looking for their first win since the opening day of the season.
Villarreal were the culprits in this case, scoring 3-0 times in the final 25 minutes to ultimately run out convincing winners away to Athletic - a result which turned a respectable start to the season into a poor one.
However, Tuesday's defeat means that they now find themselves on the verge of going five La Liga games without a win for the first time since February.
It should be noted, though, that they have a game in hand over every other team in the division, having seen their match against Rayo Vallecano be postponed due to ongoing construction work on Rayo's stadium. If they had played that game and won it, then they could be sitting as high as seventh.
Athletic have won just one of their 11 La Liga games on the road this calendar year, picking up seven points from a possible 33 in that time with four draws and six defeats. They have also failed to keep a clean sheet away from home so far in 2018, with their most recent one coming on December 22.
Indeed, even stretching back to last season Athletic have only kept one clean sheet from their last 15 outings, so they will be particularly pleased not to see Lionel Messi lining up against them today!
Both sides comfortably avoided relegation - more comfortably than their league positions suggested - but Athletic had finished in the top seven for four seasons in a row prior to that, so they hugely underachieved.
The recent form of Barcelona - and absences of Messi and Busquets - make this a little more difficult to call, but Athletic are not in great form themselves and really struggle on the road. Barca are far from their best right now, but they should still have enough to see off the visitors this afternoon.
SPORTS MOLE SAYS: Barcelona 3-1 Athletic Bilbao
Athletic have lost 17 and drawn just four of those matches too, so anything other than a defeat for them here is a good result.
That includes both matches last season, although none of Barcelona's goalscorers in those games are on the pitch from the start today.
The most recent meeting - which came here in March - saw Paco Alcacer open the scoring, whereas in the reverse fixture Paulinho secured the win with a 92nd-minute strike to add to Messi's opener.
BARCELONA STARTING XI: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Alba; Roberto, Vidal, Rakitic; Coutinho, Suarez, Dembele
ATHLETIC BILBAO STARTING XI: Simon; De Marcos, Alvarez, Martinez, Balenziaga; R Garcia, D Garcia, Benat; Susaeta, Williams, Yuri
Athletic may not get a better chance than that!
Raul Garcia and Dembele both go down after competing for a 50-50 which saw the ball bounce to Susaeta. He is given all the time in the world to float a cross into the box for De Marcos, who sneaks in unnoticed at the back post to cushion a volley past Ter Stegen!
It is a deserved lead for the visitors too; they have created the better chances and have largely kept Barca at bay so far, despite the home side predictably enjoying the lion's share of possession.
It was poor defending once again from the hosts as they let De Marcos ghost in unmarked, perhaps while waiting for the referee to blow for a foul after a 50-50 between Garcia and Dembele.
The first of those saw him attempt to lob Ter Stegen and send his effort narrowly wide with the Barcelona keeper beaten, while he also rounded Ter Stegen at one stage only to be denied by Arturo Vidal's tracking back.
Barcelona's one standout chance saw Suarez thwarted by the keeper having been found by Susaeta's through-ball, while the Uruguayan has also fired a long-range free kick narrowly wide.
Nonetheless, it bounces up and against the bar, rebound towards Suarez who just cannot contort his body enough to turn it goalwards.
Messi plays a brilliant one-two with Alba before firing the return pass towards goal, but it comes off the inside of the post! Moments later he curls one from the edge of the box, but his strike deflects wide.
Unsurprisingly, Messi is key as he first darts down the right before cutting inside and driving an effort towards goal which Simon saves. Messi latches straight onto the rebound and fires a pass across goal, and Munir reacts well to convert it from close range!
Munir El Haddadi's 84th-minute goal ultimately rescued a point for the hosts after Oscar De Marcos's opener, but Barca were again far from their best and could surrender top spot in the Madrid derby tonight.
Than k you very much for joining Sports Mole for today's match as Barcelona make it three games without a win courtesy of a late draw with Athletic Bilbao. I will leave you with our match report, and be sure to check back in tonight for live coverage of the Madrid derby between Real and Atletico.
From me, though, it is goodbye for now!
