La Liga: Liverpool hero not certain of Real Madrid start

Luis Suarez returns from a four-month suspension this weekend

Michael Lintorn wonders if Barcelona will start with Luis Suarez on the bench in Saturday's Clasico...

As if the first Clasico of the campaign isn't reason enough to get excited, the latest edition of the historic fixture comes with one heck of a sub-plot: the debut of Luis Suarez, over three months after Barcelona completed the paperwork to sign him from Liverpool.

The prospect of a front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Suarez can finally shift from enchanting vision to reality now that the Uruguayan has served his four-month ban for chomping on Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup and is available for Saturday's trip to Real Madrid.

The sole problem is that they don't actually seem to need him at present. All the pre-season worries - a young coach in Luis Enrique who failed in his previous big job at Roma, seven signings of varying quality, tinkering with the Barcelona formula (buying actual centre backs, tweaking Lionel Messi's role, sidelining Xavi) and several off-field dramas - have faded into the backdrop due to a great start.

Having been forced into the shadow of the Madrid teams last term, being eliminated by Atletico in the Champions League and Real in the Copa del Rey, while being beaten to top spot in La Liga by the former, the Catalan club have set the standard so far in 2014/15.

Enrique's men have won nine out of 11 in all competitions, faltering only away to Malaga (a league draw) and Paris St-Germain (a Champions League loss) and as a result have a three-point advantage over Sevilla in La Liga, not to mention four and five-point cushions over Real and Atletico.

That record has seen them assume 1.9210/11 title favouritism having at one stage been backed at 3.5, and they have to be considered decent value at 2.915/8 to triumph at the Bernabeu. Barcelona were victorious in two of their past three league games there and had the less taxing midweek assignment in the Champions League, defeating Ajax 3-1 at home the day before Real visited Liverpool.

With everything going so well and Suarez last participating in a competitive encounter in June, Enrique has to be inclined to stick with the players who have put them top of the table like Pedro and keep the debutant to call on from the bench to terrify the ten-time European champions.