Madrid, Oct 29 (AFP) Barcelona recorded their best everstart to a La Liga season as coach Ernesto Valverde enjoyed asuccessful return to Athletic Bilbao thanks to goals fromLionel Messi and Paulinho in a 2-0 win.
Valverde has now overseen 12 wins and a draw from hisfirst 13 La Liga and Champions League matches as Barcareestablished their four-point lead at the top of the tableover Valencia, who beat Alaves 2-1 earlier on Saturday.
The Catalan giants also move eight points clear of rivalsReal Madrid, who are in action on Sunday amidst a backdrop ofpolitical turmoil as they travel to Catalonia to take onGirona.
"The truth is we struggled a lot, especially in thesecond-half," Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets told MovistarTV.
"They had chances to equalise, but with a counter-attackat the end we scored the second which leaves us with thisspectacular start."Valverde left Bilbao in the summer and his impact hasbeen felt just as much in Bilbao as it has in Barcelona --Athletic have now one just one of their last 12 matches in allcompetitions.
"Athletic pressed us hard in the second-half and made itdifficult," said Valverde.
"We gave the ball away a number of times and, withoutcreating too many clear-cut chances, Athletic are always athreat when the ball is bouncing around the area."The hosts started the brighter and only a stunning savefrom Marc-Andre ter Stegen prevented Aritz Aduriz fromslotting Athletic in front on 19 minutes.
Barca, and Messi in particular, grew into the game as thehalf wore on and the Argentine should have opened the scoringwhen he hit the woodwork for already the 10th time this seasonwith the goal at his mercy from Luis Suarez's pass.
Messi was at the heart of another flowing team move tobreak the deadlock eight minutes before half-time. Heexchanged one-twos with Paulinho and Jordi Alba beforesweeping home the left-back's low cross.
Paulinho should have extended the visitors' advantagewhen he smacked the crossbar moments later, but an under-parBarca had to withstand plenty of Athletic pressure after thebreak.
Raul Garcia's header also hit the woodwork, while TerStegen produced another stunning stop from Aduriz five minutesfrom time.
But Barca held out to record a ninth clean sheet in theirlast 13 games, and added a second deep into stoppage time whenPaulinho tapped home the rebound after Kepa Arrizabalaga hadparried Suarez's first effort.
After two seasons in the doldrums, Valencia's stunningrevival under Marcelino Garcia Toral continued as they remainBarca's closest challengers with victory in Vitoria.
Simone Zaza blasted Valencia into the lead 10 minutesbefore half-time from Manchester United loanee AndreasPereira's cut-back for his ninth goal of the season.
Alaves levelled through Alexis's header early in thesecond period, but Rodrigo's penalty after Rodrigo Ely handleda cross inside his own box gifted the visitors all threepoints.
"It has completely changed, not just our level of playbut also our mentality," Zaza said of Valencia's upturn inform since Marcelino took charge in June.
"The coach has helped a lot in that. Now we arecompetitive and can compete against anyone.
"We are second and we have to enjoy it. We don't know howfar we can go, but we have a lot of ambition."Atletico Madrid remain fourth, level on 20 points withReal Madrid, but their stumbling season continued as they wereheld 1-1 at home by Villarreal for their fifth draw in 10 Ligagames.
Diego Simeone's men's problem has largely been findingthe net but they went in front just after the hour mark inspectacular fashion as Angel Correa cushioned AntoineGriezmann's volleyed pass into his path before slotting homeat the near post.
However, in another recurring theme of Atletico's season,they sat far too deep in trying to defend their lead and werepunished nine minutes from time when Carlos Bacca flicked homea header from a corner.
"If the team continues with that aggression andintensity, better times will come," insisted a defiantSimeone, whose side face a must-win Champions League clashagainst Qarabag of Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
Sevilla leapfrogged Villarreal into fifth as goals fromWissam Ben Yedder and Pablo Sarabia earned a much-needed 2-1win over Leganes to ease the pressure on coach EduardoBerizzo. (AFP) CMCM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.