Hyperbole is not often my strong suit and I don't often partake of its glorious bounty of breathless accolades, but having watched a lot of football in my time and having never felt this before, I think it's okay to overindulge. This Barcelona side is, simply put, the best I've ever seen. As a writer, it's hard not to try and find the holes in that statement, but as a fan it's impossible not to revel in the beauty. You don't get these teams more than once in a lifetime. Not really. I was too young for Cruyff's Dream Team, so these, Pep's Dream Boys or whatever silly name you'd like to give them, are my pinnacle.

I can see that already, despite the fact that we're 16 matches into the Liga season, they haven't won any trophies save the Spanish Supercopa, and despite the fact that we've been down this road before. It doesn't matter, not really, that there is a lot of season left. We might not win any trophies this year: we might get bounced from the Champions League in the Round of 16, lose to Athletic Bilbao at that same stage in the Copa del Rey, and we might falter in La Liga at the wrong moment. But it doesn't matter. There is simply nothing like these players, this team, this group of footballers.

Rubin Kazan come to town on Tuesday and it's going to be odd. You see, they're third in our group and fighting for qualification to the knockout stages, which we denied them last year with a late winner in Russia. We're settled securely into first place with no chance of losing our spot, so we don't even have to field 11 players (I mean, I think we actually do have to field 11 players, but you know what I mean) and so we're leaving out Dani Alves, Xavi, David Villa, Pedro, and Seydou Keita along with Milito, who is missing through injury. We're also including Marc Bartra, Andreu Fontàs, Thiago, Jonathan dos Santos, and Víctor Vázquez from the B squad.

Apologies for the lack of blogging recently, but I've been busy with family things you're completely uninterested in. Hopefully from here on out I'll be able to post more regularly. Anyway, it's time now for this: WOOOOOO.

We won El Clasico 5-0! We beat Osasuna 3-0! We're top of the league by 2 points and look as good as we ever have! I spent El Clasico at a local watering hole with my penya, chanting, screaming, and generally just celebrating the brilliance of this team. I missed the Copa Catalunya match so my next bit of Barça viewing was the Osasuna match. We weren't quite as good in Pamplona as against Madrid, but we won handily despite a few shaky moments early on.