Rodri credits Guardiola’s possession advice after Barcelona maintain perfect La Liga start

Rodri says Pep Guardiola’s warning about the importance of keeping possession remains central to his game after Barcelona beat Sevilla 3-1 to make it seven wins from seven in La Liga.

The Barcelona midfielder previously worked under Guardiola at Manchester City and said his former manager had repeatedly stressed that no tactical approach could compensate for regularly giving the ball away.

“Pep Guardiola always used to tell me that there is no style of play that can make up for losing the ball repeatedly,” Rodri told Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo. “It was about staying calm and not giving the ball away.”

Barcelona’s victory at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan moved them to 21 points and kept them top of La Liga with a 100% record. Sevilla remain fifth on 13 points.

Rodri said the win had been made more difficult by Sevilla’s performance and admitted Barcelona had struggled to interpret the match correctly before half-time.

“The team has been incredible during this period,” he said. “Perhaps the Sevilla game was the most complicated for us. That is because Sevilla played a great match. We did not read the game properly in the first half, but we were excellent after the break.”

He added: “Our aim was to win the first seven matches before the international break.”

Raphinha’s record-breaking scoring run

Raphinha leads the La Liga scoring charts with 12 goals, five ahead of Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal.

The Brazil international scored a second consecutive hat-trick, having also scored three times in Barcelona’s previous league match against Racing Santander on matchday six.

His goals against Sevilla came with his head, right foot and left foot. It was the first time a Barcelona player had completed a hat-trick in that fashion since Luis Suarez did so against Cordoba in 2015.

Raphinha’s 12 goals in the 2026-2027 La Liga season also make him only the third player in the 21st century to reach that total within his team’s first seven matches of a campaign.

Lionel Messi scored 10 goals for Barcelona in the opening seven games of 2011-2012 and 11 in the same stage of 2017-2018. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 13 for Real Madrid after seven matches in 2014-2015.

Yamal sets assist milestone

Yamal has now provided 51 assists in 159 appearances for Barcelona in all competitions. At 19 years and 68 days, he became the youngest player to reach 50 La Liga assists since at least the 2013-2014 season.

The previous record belonged to Vinicius Junior, who registered his 50th assist for Real Madrid in May 2023 at the age of 22 years and 298 days.