Barcelona travel to La Mestalla to take on a Valencia side who will be without Gary Neville, their new manager after Nuno resigned last weekend.

Form 

It's been buisness as usual for Luis Enrique and the Catalans as they swept through Real Sociedad last weekend and dispatched Villanovense in the second round of the Copa Del Rey. With Leo Messi fully fit and back from injury, Barca's attack is looking even more dangerous. They are also flying in Europe as they recently dispatched Roma 6-1 and all but sealed their place as first in their group.

Barca still have to go play Bayer Leverkusen but the result of that fixture won't change anything in the group standings.  Barcelona have outscored their opponents 10-1 combined this week and will look to put a number of goals past Valencia. 

It will be the start of a new era for Gary Neville and Valencia. Neville was appointed the manager this week after former manager Nuno Espírito Santo quit after their 1-0 loss to Sevilla last week. Neville will join his brother on the coaching staff and will have a big task ahead of him. First off, he will have to try and get Valencia out of their Champions League group as they sit one point off of second place Gent.

Their next UCL fixture is against last place Lyon and they will have to get a win and hope Gent slip to advance or it's the Europa League for them. But they have work to do in La Liga as they sit 9th in the table and are five points off the Champions League spots. 

Key Players

The key player for Barcelona will be Leo Messi. After making his return in El Clasico, Messi has been back in form for the Catalans and will look to make a big impact in his first big La Liga game. Messi has shown no signs of rust so look for him to be heavily invovled in the Barcelona attack. 

The key player for Valencia will Alvaro Negredo. The Spainard has been good for Valencia at the beginning of the season but has gone through a slump as of late. It will be a good matchup to watch Negredo and Javier Mascherano go at it. Two aggresive players that aren't afraid of contact, will be one worth watching. 

Team News

After being left out of Barcelona's squad for their Copa Del Rey match, reports surfaced that Leo Messi trained alone the day before. It certainly will be a situation worth monitoring. 

It will be up to interim manager Voro to lead Valencia in this game. It would be silly for Valencia to give Neville his first game to be against Barcelona. Smart move by the Valencia board. 

What They're Saying

"First of all, I won't be on the bench against Barcelona," said Gary Neville when asked in his initial press conference (via ESPNFC). 

Like said earlier in this article, it wouldn't be smart to have Neville on the bench. 

Gerard Pique was asked by reporters about his tweet regarding Real Madrid's disqualification from the Copa Del Rey (via ESPNFC) and the defender responded by saying "a feeling I had last night and still have today. It was amusing. You know me." 

Prediction

Barcelona are playing on another planet right now and no one is expecting anything other than a win for Luis Enrique's side this weekend -- it's just a matter of how many goals they will win by.