Celta Vigo 4-1 Barcelona: 5 Talking Points
Defending champions Barcelona finally lost their first game of the La Liga season when they were thrashed 4-1 by a confident Celta de Vigo side at the Balaidos. With this loss, Barcelona have now dropped to fifth in the league with the top spot being claimed by Real Madrid after their victory over Athletic Club Bilbao.Nothing went right for Barcelona in this game in which they were outplayed by Celta on all fronts. Former Barcelona striker Nolito opened the scoring with a curling stunner and then set up the former Liverpool and Sevilla man Iago Aspas twice to make the score 3-0. Neymar got one back late in the game but the hope was short lived as Guidetti immediately scored another to complete the humiliation.Here are the major talking points from the game.
#1 Things not working out for Gerard Pique
From being booed by his own countrymen to being banned for almost doing nothing to conceding four goals twice in the season already, things have not been going right for Gerard Pique. This was his first game after serving the four-match ban which he received during the Spanish Super Cup game against Athletic Club Bilbao.
Pique being arguably Barcelona’s best defender, this should have been a positive result considering the fine form of the team in the league. On the contrary, the Barcelona defence was completely annihilated by Celta de Vigo.
While the whole defence was at fault, Pique was especially poor. He gave away the ball too easily at times and one of these mistakes led to the second goal. He was lazy at times and without him being at his best, the defence just fell apart.
This is a reminder of the bad patch he was having early last season as well, when he had to benched by Luis Enrique for a couple of games. Maybe the trick will work this time too?