The win sees Barcelona return to winning ways and cut the gap at the top of the table back to five points after 11 games of the 2025-26 season played.
Although Barcelona won, a rather surprising statistic emerged after the victory. Eder Sarabia’s side actually edged possession in the game, enjoying 51% of the ball to Barca’s 49%.
Football data and statistics expert Fran Martinez noted how it’s the first time Barca haven’t enjoyed the majority of possession in a home game in La Liga since October 2017 against Las Palmas under Ernesto Valverde (Barcelona 3-0 Las Palmas 48% to 52%).
Opta also say that Elche are the first newly promoted team to have more possession in a La Liga game against Barcelona for 20 years.
While Barcelona will welcome the three points, they still look a little short of form and continue to be without some key players including Pedri, Raphinha and Joan Garcia.
Ferran Torres admitted it had been a mixed showing after the final whistle. He said: “We started very strong. We were a bit off our game after that, but we found our spirit and our intensity.”