Sporting Gijon vs Barcelona: Cesc Fabregas Injury Won't Slow Barcelona

Barcelona isn't even going to notice the absence of Cesc Fabregas when they take on Sporting Gijon. While the absence of a top-flight attacker is obviously a huge blow to their offense, it won't come into play this week.

Sporting Gijon is the worst team in La Liga and Barcelona sets the standard in La Liga regardless of whether or not Fabregas is on the field.

Fabregas is expected to be out for three weeks, according to ESPN.com. His hamstring injury is a disappointing annoyance, but it's not one that will cripple them this week.

With Andres Iniesta, Alexis Sanchez and Ibrahim Afellay already falling victim to injury, losing a player of Fabregas' caliber is obviously not ideal. Luckily for Barcelona, they are stacked enough to compensate for such a loss.

They happen to have the best player in the sport, which will come in handy when they take on a Sporting Gijon back line who will have no answer for Lionel Messi. This is also a great time for David Villa to get more heavily involved in the attack.

Sporting Gijon has proven that their back line is a liability, but it's their lack of any sort of offense that has them sitting on the bottom of the La Liga standings. They have failed to score in their last three La Liga matches and it's hard to see them answering when Barcelona starts knocking in goals, which they inevitably will.

Fabregas' loss hurts, but Sporting Gijon still finds themselves grossly outmatched. They've only seen goals from David Barral and Miguel de las Cuevas this season and it's hard to imagine either of them having a major impact.

When Barcelona takes the field, they aren't even going to notice that their attack is missing a superstar.