El Clasico preview: Barcelona’s goal machine meets its biggest test yet

It’s still not Nov but there’s already a sense of inevitability around the La Liga season. Barcelona have been a free-scoring beast, winning all their nine games in emphatic fashion and are already six points clear of Real Madrid, who are still getting used to Jose Mourinho’s ways.A victory at Camp Nou on Sunday in the season’s first Clasico will hand Barcelona a runaway lead. Given the way the season has progressed so far, it could well be game, set and match.English winger Anthony Gordon, in his first season for the Catalan giants, has been one of the important cogs in the wheel. Though he has scored only once in the Liga so far, the mild-mannered attacker has been a livewire down the left.When TOI asked him ahead about the secret sauce behind Barca’s indomitable goal-scoring spree this season, the winger said, “It’s a mix of the ability of some incredible players and having a relentless mindset to keep going. When we’ve been three, four goals up, we haven’t stopped attacking and our need and want for goals never went down. That reflects in the number of goals we’ve scored,” Gordon, who has fitted in well to coach Hansi Flick’s high-press attacking system, said.The 25-year-old was part of a Newcastle United team that put up a good fight in the first leg of the Champions League round-of-16 last season before being routed 2-7 at Camp Nou. But the Spanish champions are looking deadlier this season and Gordon attributes that to “players coming into their own”.“They’re showing a lot of character and personality. Lamine (Yamal) has gone to a different level, even Pau Cubarsí. The likes of Marc Bernal and Javi Espart are also really taking a step into the team. We have a very young team and for someone like Rodri to come and really calm the team down with his football intelligence has been very important,” Gordon said.(Watch El Clasico exclusively on FanCode at 1.30 am)Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.