Five key stats from Barcelona 1-0 Valencia

Barcelona extended their lead at the top of the league table to ten points when they secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Valencia this evening.

Although Real Madrid will have the chance to bridge the gap back to seven points when they meet Real Betis later tonight, Barça’s win should keep the defending champions under immense pressure.

However, it was not the most straightforward victory for Barça, who had to dig in defensively to secure yet another 1-0 victory in La Liga. In fact, the win over Valencia was Barcelona’s 13th victory by a 1-0 margin in the 50 league matches Xavi has managed so far. This translates to 26 percent of the matches being won with that scoreline.

As a matter of fact, Barcelona are closing in on Atletico Madrid’s record of 282 wins by a 1-0 margin – higher than any other club. The Catalans are currently third with 259 wins, just two behind second-placed Valencia (261).

Scoreline aside, a key turning point of the game was when Ronald Araujo picked up a red card, leaving his team without a man during the final half-hour of the proceedings. Moments before the red card, Ferran Torres had also missed a penalty, which could have extended Barça’s lead to 2-0.

Interestingly, the last time Barcelona received a red card and missed a penalty in the same game was back in March 2007 against Sevilla, when the Catalans had two players sent off and missed a penalty as well.

Araujo’s red card, meanwhile, means the Uruguayan international has just as many red cards as he has been dribbled by players this season – one. It is quite an exceptional statistic and one that is enough to highlight the defender’s importance in the Barça squad.

Amid all the penalty misses and red cards, Raphinha turned out to be the hero when he headed the winner in the 15th minute of the game.

The Brazilian has now scored three headed goals in La Liga this season – joint-highest in the league with Vedat Muriqi, Joselu, Chimy Avila and Eder Militao.