Éric Abidal signed a new contract on Monday, January 16, keeping him with the team until at least the end of June 2013. Two days later he scored just his second goal for Barcelona; his other goal, against Athletic Bilbao, was in a January Copa del Rey match last season.

Since that goal in San Mames, Abidal has suffered and recovered from a liver tumor that sidelined him for more than a month. He returned in the Champions League semifinal second leg against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou, subbing on for the final few minutes to rapturous applause. When the team won the Champions League a few weeks later, it was Abidal who was given the armband and the right to lift the trophy in front of the obligatory volcano of blue and red confetti.

When he stomped on Javier Casquero in April 2009, Pepe was sent off and handed a 10-match ban. It's easily arguable to say that his deliberate stamp on Lionel Messi's hand during their Champions League Copa del Rey encounter last night was nowhere near as bad. Yet it is merely a part of a pattern of behavior that stretches back at least to the beginning of his Real Madrid career and it deserves a lengthy suspension.

The match last night had several moments of contemptible actions by both teams, including Xabi Alonso's repeated deliberate fouls and Ricardo Carvalho's tackle from behind on Lionel Messi. Cesc Fabregas kicked out at Pepe, and Lionel Messi and Fabio Coentrao got into it before the latter attempted to shove the former's head into the ground. Both teams also engaged in play acting resulting from some of this harsh play and Pepe was a major actor in that part as well.

When the ref blew for the end of match, some of the Barcelona fan base muttered something about where his whistle could go. Others yelled about it. Still more tweeted it. Yet the lesson overall is hardly that Turienzo Alvarez is bad referee or, worse, biased - Marca went with a play on words about it and even Raúl Rodríguez, the man who committed the late handball, admitted that it was one - but rather that there are no easy games and never a dull moment when you're the worldwide target.

Perhaps the team were looking forward to Monday’s FIFA gala and Messi's third consecutive Ballon d'Or win (with Xavi coming in 3rd for the 3rd year running as well), but whatever it was, they looked listless and were outplayed. Pochettino put out a squad that, in very imprecise terms, "wanted it more" and filled the midfield. Barca gave the ball away more than Espanyol (88 to 86) while they had fewer shots (9 to 13), which suggests that, in several areas they were outplayed by their city rivals.

A question such as this—whether a particular tournament is meaningful—is often extremely subjective. Ask pretty much anyone outside of eastern Spain if the Copa Catalunya is important and they’ll ask what that is before shaking their head. I’ve compared the Europa League to the American college basketball second-tier National Invitational Tournament (NIT); the Intertoto Cup stopped existing in 2008, but you probably noticed right now when you read those words.

The FIFA Club World Cup, a yearly tournament since 2005 (there was a 2000 version as well) is the new incarnation of the Intercontinental Cup created in 1960. That tournament was hosted in Japan from 1980 until its assimilation into the FIFA brand after its 2004 edition (prior to 1980 there was a home-and-home format). Not everyone in Europe cared a massive amount about that tournament either and the trophy tally shows that: South America won 22 times to Europe’s 21. South American teams won the first 3 Club World Cups, but the 4 since then have all been won by European teams.

It was 0-1 and the match was looking good for Barça until David Villa went down awkwardly and immediately signaled to the bench that he was, er, screwed. It was the end of his match, his tournament, his calendar year, and possibly his season. A fractured tibia put him on a plane back to Barcelona while the rest of the team stayed to continue with the FIFA Club World Cup.

Villa is now Barcelona’s second long-term injury for the season, Ibrahim Afellay having torn knee ligaments in practice in September. That both men are forwards puts pressure on the remaining attackers and will probably signal a more regular shift to the 3-5-2 formation (as well as the increasingly usual 3-4-3) Guardiola has been experimenting with. But it’s not just any other forward that Barcelona are losing.

At the end, when Fernández Borbolán blew the final whistle, things were put right again. Or so we told ourselves, hoarse and happy, the victors of another Clásico. There were no Madrid fans waiting to challenge Barça’s win as a scandalous refereeing debacle or indictment of the entire European footballing system. In fact, there was no one, at least no one in the bar this writer was in, who even suggested that the match was anything other than a wonderful display and a just scoreline.

And it was certainly both. Yes Madrid had clear chances, but scuffed their lines. Barça too scuffed some lines, however, and then rode its talent to the finish line while Madrid seemed to collapse in slow motion as the exertion of their first 70 minutes took its toll. The winner was the correct one on the night and now the league is fully in play again, with Barça provisionally top. The prevailing mood, however, suggests that Barça will overcome a three point deficit when the squad returns from the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.

You're probably well aware of this already, but El Clásico is bearing down on us all once again. Like a terrible army of dementors, it is preparing to suck your spirit from your face and leave you slack-jawed and lifeless. A husk where once there was vibrant thought. An empty shell where once there was exuberant analysis. There were four in a row late last season and they effectively wiped out this writer's sanity for nearly three months and, if the tabloid headlines are to be believed, left most of Spain in rubble.

• Real blog: Madrid starting XI for El Clasico

Now it has returned and while the game itself should be thrilling given the number of stars on hand and the way the teams are playing, it will also bring about a maelstrom of journalistic and fan-based frothing at the mouth. There's nothing quite like a full-fledged international freak out whenever a referee makes a mistake or, indeed, when he does nothing wrong. There's been eye-poking, red cards, and more bluster than parliament.

It may come as some surprise to those who regularly read this column, but I was surprised at Saturday's victory against Real Zaragoza. Not particularly shocked that Barca won despite the team's penchant for dropping points after international breaks (I predicted a 2-1 victory, after all), but I was not expecting such an easy victory.

The stats, however, put it a bit into perspective: 11 shots on goal to 0. 68% possession to 32%. Zaragoza never really showed up or at least if they “showed up” they never really tried to leave their own half for any real amount of time. Part of that was Barça’s technical superiority, but it was also Javier Aguirre’s tactical approach that doomed them. They held out for just 18 minutes and then it became a test of how few goals they could allow rather than a question of whether they could get back into the match. Holding on valiantly for another 25 minutes before Lionel Messi scored could be viewed as a moral victory, but not much else.

During a conversation about the week's schedule, my wife, by nature not interested in sports and thus uninformed about the particulars of domestic cups in Spain, asked why Barça were playing a Segunda B team in their next game. They're in the first division, after all, and L'Hospitalet aren’t. It occurred to me that I've had basically the same conversation with several non-football fans over the last few months (my brother, my boss, a few friends) and it's kind of tricky. Still, I consider myself pretty capable of the explanation - it's not all that difficult - but after doing so, my wife asked the question that always comes next: Is it important?

For many Spaniards, the simple answer is yes. Like the FA Cup and the League Cup, the competition allows for some of the smaller teams to jump out of their lower leagues to face the big boys. Alcorcon's win in 2009 was huge for the team and big news throughout the country--schadenfreude is fun, after all. When Barça won the CDR in 2008-09, it was heralded as a massive achievement and celebrated wildly.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Catalunya

This was the week that Lionel Messi became the second 200 goal scorer in Barcelona's history. It was also the week that Pep Guardiola coached his 200th official game for Barça and the team scored their 500th goal under him. Victor Valdes got in on the act as well, breaking Miguel Reina's clean sheet mark of 824 minutes without allowing a goal. Valdes is now at 877 minutes after he maintained the clean sheet all the way through the Champions League clash with Viktoria Plzeň.

I'm not sure what to find most impressive, but the fun part of Barça is that you don't really have to choose. You get both in this current iteration. It's a Golden Era and it's absolutely breathtaking. Sandra Sarmiento tweeted today that under Guardiola, Messi has scored a goal every 87 minutes, but this season it's been one every 66 minutes. That's absolutely incredible. It has even inspired a Real Madrid fan to honour the team with a song.