Last week I wrote a piece in praise of Leo Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry. However, it could be argued that the form of Barça's defence is just as important if not more so to this season's success. Victor Valdés has only been beaten nine times in fifteen league games which makes Barça's the best defence in La Liga so far this season.

At the start of the season there were still a few problems at the back especially when it came to defending at set pieces.  The first clean sheet in the league wasn't achieved until the 0-1 win at Athletic Bilbao in the seventh jornada. Since then we have managed another six clean sheets in La Liga and have now only...

Not really much surprise here. Despite some excellent performances from his team mates in November, Leo Messi who won the award in October is once again my player of the month. Messi played in 7 games this month, and the only one of those games that he didn't score in was possibly his best game of the month: the 6-0 victory over Valladolid. Toure Yaya comes in second and it is great to see the big man back in such excellent form after a slow start to the season. Captain Carles Puyol is third, he has excelled in every defensive position this month but he was especially impressive in the swimming...

Three Barça players, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and Leo Messi have been named in the ideal XI by the Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Futbolistas Profesionales. The full team is as follows: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), John Terry (Chelsea), Carles Puyol (Barcelona)  Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Xavi (Barcelona) Kaká (AC Milan) Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United).

Not a bad night for the Barça players as Puyol, Busquets, Messi and Keita all scored to add to the two goals scored by Samuel Eto'o earlier in the day (see previous post). Spain won 0-3 in Estonia with good performances from Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol who scored Spain's third goal (Click here to see). There was not such good fortune for Pique, Bojan and Busquets playing for Spain's under-21 team who lost 2-1 away to Switzerland though Busquets did score Spain's goal.

Leo Messi followed up his headed goal against Sporting Gijon by nodding in Argentina's first goal after five minutes in the 2-1 win against Uruguay...

Pep Guardiola has made four changes to the list of players named for tomorrow night's Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon at Camp Nou. Thierry Henry returns to the squad along with Rafa Marquez, Martin Caceres and Sylvinho. The players left out are Hleb, who will miss three to four weeks with a ligament injury to his left ankle, youngsters Sergio Busquets and Victor Sanchez, and Eric Abidal. Could Guardiola have realized already that Abidal is a weak link, or could it just be part of a general plan to rotate players regularly?

Sporting have won two out of two so far in the Portuguese League this season. Last weekend they had no game and so have had plenty of time to prepare for this game. The most familiar players...