Matchday 4 - Player to Watch

Alberto Botia (Sporting de Gijon)

On Wednesday night there will be something of a homecoming for Sporting de Gijon defender Alberto Botia, as he returns to the club who signed him as a 14-year-old and where he spent six of the most important years of his footballing education. As fate would have it, the centre back only made one substitute appearance for Barcelona despite cutting his teeth for three seasons with the B team. At the beginning of the 2009-10 season Botia was loaned to Sporting de Gijon and the Murcia-born player was such a success - playing twenty-six games in his debut season at the age of 20 - that the Asturian club made it one of their priorities this summer to secure the defender's services on a permanent deal. Despite his tender age, Alberto Botia is now one of the first names on Manuel Preciado's team sheet amidst what has evolved to become a very consistent back four line-up, which also includes Roberto Canella, Alberto Lora and Botia's central defensive partner, Gregory Arnolin. With midweek fixtures sandwiched between weekend games in a frantic schedule, Preciado has decided to rotate eight of his eleven players from Sunday's draw with Athletic Bilbao, but it says a lot for Botia's influence that he is one of the three - and the only defender - to survive the cull. How he deals with former team mates Pedro, Bojan and Andres Iniesta, as well as Spain's World Cup hero David Villa, could have an important bearing on how well Sporting stand up at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.