We had a few doubts during November but we finish the month unbeaten with four victories and two draws, we are top of La Liga and our Champions League group while also qualifying for the next round of the Copa del Rey (which is something not all the big teams in Spain can say!). The draw in Kazan does not look so bad now and the only other points we lost this month were against an inspired Athletic Bilbao in San Mames.

Much of our success this month was down to the performance of our defence as we only conceded three goals in six games. This is reflected in this month's winner who is none other than our heroic captain Carles Puyol. In the three most important games this month against Rubin Kazan, Inter Milan...

Let's be honest, it wasn't our best month ever. However, we could also say we only lost one game (to Rubin Kazan) in six and of the three main leagues in Europe - Spain, England and Italy - we are the only team to remain unbeaten in our domestic league. Whatever the case, when I look back at the six games from this month there are very few individual performances that stand out. After some careful consideration I have decided that the Fcbnews October Player Of The Month has to go to Seydou Keita. His hat-trick against Zaragoza was the best individual performance of the month and that was backed up by another goal on Saturday against Osasuna which also makes Keita the top scorer of the month.

The award very nearly went...

As there were only four official games in August, I decided to combine August and September for the first Player Of The Month award of the season. Results are based on the Liga and Champions League games played so far plus the three supercup games we played in August.

Not too many surprises that the first winner of the season is Leo Messi. He has only played in eight of the ten games but has started in excellent form scoring eight goals including two in the games against Atletico Madrid, Racing Santander and also two in the Supercup game with Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou. In second place is Gerard Piqué who continues to...

It seems as if the majority of readers agree with me that Leo Messi was our best player in the 2008/2009 season. Messi polled 333 votes giving him 56% of the vote. In second place with 109 votes (18%) was Andres Iniesta, followed by Xavi Hernandez with 57 votes (10%), Thierry Henry 33 votes (6%), Samuel Eto'o 25 votes (4%), Toure Yaya 12 votes (2%), Dani Alves 12 votes (2%) and Gerard Piqué 5 votes (1%). The new poll continues the Eto'o or Villa theme: who do you want to see as our first choice striker next season?

I had a lot of headaches when I started thinking about this. After such a marvellous season it seems a shame to single out one player as being better than the others. If truth be told I would like to give the award to the top three players who have all had exceptionally good seasons. But as I didn't want to cop out on a decision I decided to make a choice anyway and then you can all argue amongst yourselves.

After considering long and hard I have decided that Barça's best player of the 2008/9 season should go to Leo Messi. He may not have been as consistant as his two closest challengers but overall I think Messi was the one who showed up when we most needed it. In the first half of the season especially he was responsible for many late...

I've a lot of catching up to do over the next few days. Coming soon you will have a Player by Player Review of the Season, the Player of the Season award, as well as the final fantasy football table. For today you are getting the Player of the Month for May, and I have to say it was another close one. Given that some of our games this month were somewhat more important than others I've based the results on performances in the games at Real Madrid and Chelsea and our two finals against Athletic Bilbao and Manchester United.

The May Player of the Month goes to Gerard Piqué after scoring the sixth goal in the Bernabeu, driving the team on against Chelsea when we were down to ten men and a superb performance in the...

Despite the disappointment of the last two drawn games it has still been a pretty good month for Barça. We remained unbeaten in April, we are still in poll position to win La Liga this season and we are just one game away from reaching the Champions League final. We played some excellent football this month and few will forget the two outstanding 4-0 victories over Bayern Munich and Sevilla. Andres Iniesta wins the Fcbnews player of the month award for the third consecutive month and it is not surprising that some fans now consider him to be even better than Leo Messi. The sixty minutes he played against Sevilla will be remembered by those fortunate enough to see it as one of the best individual performances seen at Camp Nou in recent years, but...

Apologies for the lack of activity on the blog this week, there's so little going on this week with the break for meaningless international friendlies that I thought it was a good time for a mini-break to recharge my batteries for the intense nine weeks that we have in front of us. Just a quick post today to announce the Fcbnews Player of the Month for March 2009. It was a close call this month and any of four players could have won it, but in the end the award goes to Andres Iniesta for the second month going. He may not score the goals or in fact give as many assists as some other players but he has been a joy to watch and I believe it is no coincidence that we started winning again when he returned to the team. His pass for Dani...

Well it's not been the best of months by the high standards we have set this season, but we are still in the running for three competitions so we shouldn't really grumble too much. The player of the month for February is Andres Iniesta, who unfortunately has ended the month on the injury list but today he was training again with the rest of the team and will hopefully be back in the team next weekend. Iniesta was in good form before his injury and was our best player in the games against Mallorca, Sporting and Betis. It is a sign of Iniesta's importance that we have not won either of the two matches he has missed. This is the third time Iniesta has won the Fcbnews Player Of The Month award, only Leo...

It's been another superb month for Barça: four wins out of four in La Liga plus we are through to the Copa del Rey semi-finals after knocking out Atletico Madrid and Espanyol. The level of some players continues to be very high which makes choosing a player of the month very difficult. However, the player of the month for January 2009 has to go to Dani Alves whose progression in recent weeks has been exceptional. We all knew that Alves had great talent and never-ending resources of energy, but his adaptation to his new team has impressed us all and the combination with Leo Messi on the right wing has surpassed all expectations. In January alone Alves has notched up five assists...