Big Match Feature: Barca v City

Form guide (all competitions, most recent first)

Barcelona: WLWWDW

Manchester City: DLDWWW

Pep Guardiola returns to the club where he made his name when Manchester City FC visit FC Barcelona on matchday three.

This meeting of the top two in Group C will take several other Barcelona old boys back to their former club – director of football Txiki Begiristain, goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, winger Nolito, and assistant coach Mikel Arteta.

Previous Meetings

The clubs met for the first time in a competitive fixture in the 2013/14 round of 16. Barcelona won 2-0 in England with Lionel Messi (pen) and Dani Alves scoring, and that pair struck again in a 2-1 victory back at the Camp Nou, either side of Vincent Kompany's goal. In both games City had a man sent off – Martín Demichelis, then Pablo Zabaleta.

The line-ups in Barcelona on 12 March 2014 were:

Barcelona: Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Mascherano,

Liverpool play into Mourinho's hands as he turns spoiler to steal a point for Man Utd

The master of dark arts was at it again at Anfield on Monday night as his men coaxed the hosts into a scruff and engaged in persistent fouling to foil the Reds

It had the billing of an unmissable blockbuster, but in the end, Liverpool's hosting of Manchester United was really just a remake of Jose Mourinho: The Spoiler . The men from down the M62 departed Anfield with a clean sheet and a point, but no more evidence of the

Not even Pogba and Ibrahimovic are untouchable at United, says Mourinho

Red Devils manager warns big-name summer signings that they must earn their stripes like everyone else at Old Trafford this season

Jose Mourinho insists none of his Manchester United stars are untouchable, not even Paul Pogba or Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Messi Don't Scare Me? Stones!

City have looked shaky at the back of late, but their young defender insists his side are ready for the challenge of Barca while revealing his admiration for their style of play

John Stones insists he is not afraid of facing Lionel Messi and Barcelona ahead of Manchester City's visit in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Guardiola hits out at journalists who claimed he called Messi AND Neymar this summer

What is Oliver Giroud future at Arsenal?

The France striker has yet to play a minute of Premier League football this season due to injury and could find it difficult to get back into the team

The France striker has yet to play a minute of Premier League football this season due to injury and could find it difficult to get back into the team

---

Injuries hitting Arsenal players at key points in the season usually has a degree of inevitability about them, so it was hardly a major surprise to see Olivier Giroud ruled out for the opening batch of Premier League fixtures after injuring his toe in training.

Barcelona striker Neymar has agreed a new contract which keeps him at the Nou Camp until the summer of 2021.

The Catalan club has fixed his buy-out clause at £181m for the first year of his new contract,£200m for the second year and £226m for the remaining three years of his deal.

Barca signed the Brazil forward from Santos in 2013 and he has gone on to become one of the game's biggest superstars.