spanish

After the first 15 matches of the new campaign FC Barcelona have made the best ever start in the history of the league with a record of 40 points.

The last monthly report by La Caixa, the main Catalan financial institution, also stresses that the currency war should end in order to avoid a protectionism escalation. It foresees a Spanish GDP growth of 0.7% for 2011.

FC Barcelona recorded their ninth consecutive victory as they eased past Real Sociedad on Sunday evening to go back to the top of the table thanks to two goals from Lionel Messi and one each from David Villa, Andrés Iniesta and Bojan Krkic.

Zapatero's government justifies the decision to declare the state of alert and guarantees that the Christmas holidays will not suffer any disruptions. However, passengers face new threats as ground staff considers taking industrial action against the plans to privatise the air traffic authority

It seems that nothing can stop this Barça. After a complicated trip to Navarra, arriving less than an hour before kick-off, the team chalked up their seventh away win on the run with a 0-3 win at the Reyno de Navarra.

The Spanish government sends military personnel to force air controllers back to work. Passengers are now facing further delays as airports try to clear the backlog

Josep Guardiola believes the game against Osasuna will be “a good test for us”. He also reckons that the team must put Monday’s win behind them and warned that Madrid would now be more dangerous than ever.

The 5-0 win over Real Madrid on Monday also makes Barça 2010/11 the best ever FCB team after thirteen league matches, with eleven wins, one draw and just one defeat.

FC Barcelona put in a superb performance to play the previously unbeaten Real Madrid off the pitch and run out 5-0 winners at the Nou Camp tonight with goals from Xavi, Pedro, Villa (2) and Jeffren. This was an exemplary 90 minutes in all aspects from Guardiola’s men.

FC Barcelona face one of their toughest tests of the season as the long-awaited encounter with Real Madrid takes place on Monday evening (22:00h) and victory would see the Catalan side leapfrog their opponents at the top of the Primera table.

Leo Messi just keeps on smashing records and there seems to be no limit to what he can achieve. His brilliant performance in Almeria was rounded off with another hat trick –his seventh for the team – as well as two assists.

Barça have subjected Almeria to a rout in a show of attacking brilliance, going 5-0 ahead in just 36 minutes thanks to goals from (2), Iniesta, Acasiete (own goal) and Pedro. Bojan (2) and Messi added three more on a historic night.

Josep Guardiola is only thinking about FC Barcelona's game against Almería on Saturday instead of paying any attention to the encounter with Real Madrid the following week.

The Camp Nou is the venue tonight (at 22.00) for a gripping encounter between Barça and Vila-real, second and third in the table respectively. Without Piqué or Milito, the big mystery is who will partner Puyol in the centre of defence.

Because of the way FC Barcelona and Vila-real are playing, Josep Guardiola expects a good game on Saturday night. He has been impressed with what he’s seen of Garrido’s third place outfit.