The schedule for the 85th edition of the Spanish La Liga has been released and Barcelona finds itself challenging for their 24th title with the heavy competition of Real Madrid, the ever evolving Atlético Madrid under Simeone and a Valencia side that continues to improve as they reap the benefits of the investments made by Peter Lim.

Barcelona makes the league debut away from home for the 45th time and the first since 2010, compared to 40 starts at home, winning the first league match in each of the previous six seasons and hoping to someday match the club's all time record of 12 wins in a row achieved between 1952 and 1963. Having triumphed on the first match of the season for a record 53 times, with 18 away wins, 9 draws and 17 losses when it comes to first round away matches. The record in the first game of La Liga in each of the previous six seasons are six wins, 26 goals scored (4.3 per game), one goal conceded and five clean sheets.

Starting the league at San Mamés facing Athletic Bilbao is no small task, it's the 9th time since Barcelona won 1-0 in the 2003/2004 season. Matches vs the Basque outfit in the first round happened eight times, with five wins, two draws, and just one defeat. Sadly, Barça didn't win the league in the last five times they faced Athletic Club in the first round. The Catalan club will face them three times in nine days, two of them for the Spanish Super Cup.

Some good news for the players as the follow up of three of FIFA International Breaks this season occur at the Camp Nou. When it comes to Clásicos, the last three staged on the 12th round finished with three wins by Barcelona, while the last three contests vs Real Madrid on the 31st are level with one win, one draw and one defeat. If that wasn't enough, in the three times that Barça faced their fiercest rivals on the 31st round they ended up winning the league.

Barça will face the six best teams of La Liga last season away from home in the first half of the season: Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal. This could be interpreted as a good sign, giving Barça an edge in 2016 by facing all of their probable fiercest opposition at the Camp Nou in 2016; or a bad sign, with the main additions Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan only being able to play from January onwards. The tricky Catalan derby vs Espanyol is scheduled in the 37th round for the 5th time in the last 11 seasons.

The treble was achieved in less than two months ago, and now the main challenge is the repeat of the iconic sextuple. The battle for the six main trophies will soon begin and there's more than enough reason to be optimistic about a strong La Liga start.