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It has been on my mind for a while, but I have finally come to the decision to stop doing the blog. I am sure the readers that have been following me for a time will have noticed a decrease in the number of posts I make. There are many reasons for this but let's just say I don't really have the time. I have not been able to keep up with various things and the fact that the current poll on show is still for last season's player of the year demonstrates this.

It really is very sad for me to stop, I recognise that a community has been born here...

It makes me laugh how the press in Spain build up every single encounter between Football Club Barcelona and Real Madrid as "The Match of the Century". However, given the extraordinary form being shown by both teams in the run up to the first clasico this season, there are plenty of ingredients to lead us to expect that we could be in for something very special at Camp Nou tomorrow night. On view we can expect to see ten of the eleven players who started in Spain's World Cup Final victory against Holland, the two last winners of the Ballon' d'Or, plus a tactical battle between the winning coaches of the last two Champions Leagues.

Both teams have won their last five matches, Barça with a fantastic 22 goals in favour with just 3 conceded while Madrid's record of 17-2...

Two goals from Pedro Rodriguez and another from Leo Messi who continues his amazing run of goals in nine consecutive games, gave Barça a comfortable 0-3 win over Panathinaikos in Athens tonight to make sure of top spot in Champions League Group D with a game to spare. We can now turn our attention totally to our battle for La Liga starting with a massive clasico match with Real Madrid on Monday night. 

The pattern early on in tonight's game had us immediately in control of the ball but we were lacking the urgency to break through Panathinaikos's 4-5-1 formation, our opponents looked to attack us quickly when they did get the ball which usually led...

It was a night of records for a stunning Barça performance tonight. The 0-8 scoreline equalled a fifty year old record set by Barça at Las Palmas as the highest away win by any team in the history of La Liga. It was also our sixth straight away win at the start of the season, a feat which has only previously been done by Real Madrid in 1992. Leading the way for us tonight was again Leo Messi who added another hat-trick to his growing collection and in doing so he reached 101 league goals in just 154 games. It is also noteworthy that 70 of these goals have been scored in just over two seasons (in 76 games) since Pep Guardiola took over as first team coach. 

Guardiola decided not to risk a...

The clasico with Real Madrid is just ten days away and some fans can think of nothing else but first we have the small matter of two complicated away games. On Wednesday we travel to Greece to resume our Champions League challenge at Panathinaikos, while tomorrow we take on Almeria at the curiously named Juegos Mediterráneos stadium. We are without Jeffren, Milito and Abidal for the game which means Thiago, Andreu Fontas and Sergi Gomez have all been included in the 19-man list for the game. There is also a doubt over Juan Manuel Pinto and if he doesn't make the trip then Oier Olazabal will take his place. Besides the obvious importance of the three points at stake it is also very important that Gerard Piqué does not receive a...

Barça earned three vital points with a fantastic 3-1 win over Villarreal tonight at Camp Nou. The whole team performed with a magnificent effort to overcome a very good Villarreal team that pushed us to the limits, but the player of the night once more was Leo Messi who scored another two goals which if I'm not mistaken makes it 66 goals in 65 games in 2010, or maybe that's 69 games I'm not totally sure. Whatever the case, with the speed that the game is played at these days and with the general quality and organisation of opposition defences, Messi's feat this year is truly phenomenal. 

The game began at a tremendous pace with both sets of players keen to...

It is true that many of us are looking forward to El Clasico at the end of the month, however, tomorrow we have a home fixture with Villarreal which could well turn out to give us more problems than the game with Madrid. Villarreal have always been a tough opponent and we have only won four out of eleven league games with them at Camp Nou and we haven't beaten them here in the league since November 2006 when goals from Iniesta, Gudjohnsen and Ronaldinho gave us a 4-0 win. Since then we have lost one and drawn twice though we did manage a 1-0 win in a Copa del Rey tie in 2008. On top of that our opponents are in excellent form and haven't lost in La Liga since the opening day back in August, they...

The sending off of Gerard Piqué with just over 20 minutes to go made tonight's victory over Getafe slightly more difficult than it should have been. Goals from Leo Messi, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez had given us a 0-3 lead which was thoroughly deserved due to our total dominance, but then Piqué was given a second yellow card for a handball which also gave Getafe the penalty that put them back in the game. We had a nervous few minutes until Getafe's midfielder Derek Boateng was also shown the red card for a second bookable offence which gave us numerical equality again and made the final minutes somewhat easier. 

There were three changes to the team...

Pep Guardiola has named 19 players for tomorrow's game at Getafe (kick off 7pm). Juan Manuel Pinto returns to the squad after missing the trip to Copenhagen through suspension which means the only first team player who is missing is Jeffren who is still recovering from injury, Thiago Alcantara has again been included in the list though Guardiola will have to discard one player before announcing the final list before the game.

Getafe are not in their best moment and they lost 0-3 at home to Stuttgart in the Europa League on Thursday which leaves them with an uphill struggle to qualify for the next round. Their league form is slightly better and they have won their last two league games at the Coliseum by 3-0 against Hercules and...