Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde is set to receive a warm welcome from his former-club Athletic Bilbao and while it will be a match tinged with emotion, he will have his eyes firmly set on setting the Catalan club's best ever start to a season.
So far, with eight wins and a draw, he is level with the record set by Tito Vilanova and Gerardo Martino in the 2012/13 and 2013/14 campaigns, respectively.
He has the best goal difference, though, out of the three with 26 for and three against compared to a +22 for Martino and Vilanova's +15.
Barcelona have a comfortable four point lead at the top of LaLiga over Valencia which is better than the seasons 2012/13 and 2013/14, when they had just a one point advantage over Atletico Madrid in the first year and then they were only leaders in the following through goal difference.
The big challenge now for Valverde is to set a new record of victories in LaLiga and it won't be easy as Vilanova's side did not drop a point until the 20th game, while with Martino at the helm they dropped their first points in San Mames in their 15th match.