I watched Barça give Real Madrid a football lesson on Monday night.  Going into the match as the unbeaten League Leaders it was hard to believe that the team from the capital was so inept.  The Catalan team was simply several classes above its opponents.

Five – nil and it could have been more. It was a stunning performance from Messi, Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi and Villa, in particular.

The precision and speed of their passing was marvellous to see.  Even the die-hard Real Madrid fans in the bar where I was watching accepted that their team were woefully lacking. It was noticeable that the Madrid players' heads dropped after the second goal and their stomach for the game and commitment in the tackle suffered horribly as a result.

The Catalans loved it, of course, as their team leap-frogged their deadly rivals from the Spanish capital to lead the Primera Liga by two points and a vastly superior goal difference (30 against 22) after 13 games.

With 25 games to go, it’s hardly over for Real Madrid's Championship aspirations, but new manager Jose Mourinho will have to do something more than he did last night, when he sat impotent in the dug-out for most of the evening.

T-shirts bearing the legend 5 - 0 were reportedly on sale within hours of the end of the match!

© Paul Whitelock

Tags: Barça, Real Madrid, Messi, Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi and Villa, Primera Liga, Jose Mourinho, Paul Whitelock, www.a1-solutions-spain.com