Barcelona v Las Palmas preview: Barca aiming to bounce back

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique believes the 4-1 defeat at Celta Vigo in midweek will serve as a wake-up call for his players as they head into Saturday's home match against Las Palmas.

The Spanish champions return to La Liga action just four days after seeing their perfect start to the campaign halted in Vigo.

The defeat, Barca's worst in the league since May 2008 when they lost by the same scoreline at Real Madrid, saw the Catalan giants drop to fifth in the standings - one point behind leaders Real.

Luis Enrique, who had predicted a difficult game at former club Celta, told Marca: "When a team have played better than you there is nothing much you can say.

"I'm not happy to have lost 4-1 and this is something we will analyse.

"This result will be a good lesson that, in football, it's always very difficult to win. It shows just how difficult La Liga is."

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Barca have not kept a clean sheet since a 1-0 victory over Malaga in their league opener, while Luis Enrique is also concerned by his team's lack of precision in front of goal.

"We had six or seven chances to score against Celta," he added.

"The problem is that in the first games of this season we have been struggling to turn those chances into goals."

La Liga Football

Neymar, who scored Barca's only goal in midweek, will lead the Blaugrana attack against Las Palmas alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

Barcelona left-backs Jordi Alba and Jeremy Mathieu are doubtful for this weekend's encounter, with the two players having sustained minor injuries in midweek.

Barca are still without injured goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, who is expected to recover from a muscular injury in time for next Tuesday's Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen at the Nou Camp - meaning Marc Andre ter-Stegen will continue to play between the posts.

Las Palmas travel to the mainland in good form after clinching their first win since gaining promotion to Spain's top flight in Wednesday's 2-0 home triumph over struggling Sevilla.

Los Amarillos, coached by Paco Herrera, have collected five points from five games.

"Saturday's game could be a headache for us considering what happened to Barca in Vigo," Herrera told Marca. "We have a 10 per cent chance and we must hold on to that."

Watch as-live coverage of Barcelona v Las Palmas on Sky Sports 2 HD at 9.30pm on Saturday.