Battered and bruised but unbowed, Barcelona somehow have dragged themselves up to the top of the La Liga table just in time for the next intoxicating edition of El Clasico.
Even better news for Luis Enrique’s men was that rivals Real Madrid succumbed to a battling Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, meaning that the Catalans have the luxury of being able to lose the Clasico and still be joint top at the very worst.
Not that the Blaugrana will be approaching the game with any thoughts of losing of course.
Indeed, with Neymar and Luis Suarez in such tremendous form, there’s every chance that Barca could widen the gap to six points at the end of proceedings.
Lionel Messi may or may not make the game and given that there are other important fixtures ahead, we could even see the Argentine rested. Although Messi has already missed almost two months of this season through injury, it won’t affect him picking up an unprecedented fifth Ballon D’Or in January.
Fifa can ill afford any voting shenanigans at this juncture and if the award is genuinely for the “best player in the world” for a particular year, then there can be no argument that Messi is a deserving recipient of the 2015 gong.
What price the Brazilian and Uruguayan joining him on the podium in a Blaugrana clean sweep? It’s happened before in 2010 when Xavi and Andres Iniesta just missed out on the top prize. Certainly, it would be hard to argue against placing Neymar and Suarez as second or third best in the world.
A striker’s currency is goals and at this stage, ‘MSN’ have certainly cashed in — they’ve scored more than any other team in the top five divisions of European football across this calendar year.
Think about that for a moment or two. A total of 122 goals between the three players is better than Bayern Munich’s whole record-breaking team, Real Madrid’s marauding eleven and Paris Saint-Germain’s serial Ligue 1 winners.
Messi leads the way with 45 goals but Neymar is hot on the Argentinian’s heels with 42. Suarez has a not insignificant 35 himself. Quite astonishing statistics that deserve endless kudos. More than goals however has been the way in which all three have dovetailed seamlessly into a convincing attacking unit. Pace, power, accuracy. This trio have it all and then some.
Each appears happy to assist the other and seem as joyful when setting up their colleagues as they do when scoring themselves. From a neutral perspective, it’s as close to perfection on a football pitch as there is possible to be.
On that basis, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a cogent argument against the most successful strike force in football history taking the honours in January.
Tactical voting or otherwise.
— The writer is an expert on Spanish football
