Why we shouldn't expect to Basque in glory come Sunday evening

Now look here, I haven't had a sudden attack of the negatives, I've merely spent my Saturday morning at work contemplating the post-internationals injury list and the implications for the trip to San Mamés.

With key players such as Xavi, Messi and the recently impressive Eidur Gudjohnsen (one day I might spell his name right) all looking unlikely to play against Athletic on Sunday it is the blog's opinion that for once culés should keep their expectations in check with regards to the level of performance demanded from the side.

3 points is still a wholely reasonable objective for our trip to Euskadi, we have the players available to carve out a result. However this season when we have been impressive it is because Xavi has been orchestrating things from the middle of the park and Messi has been terrorising defences and thus creating space for the likes of Eto'o and Andrés Iniesta. Without these two key figures it is inevitable that the rhythm and performance of the side will be reduced. Pep will probably be forced to move Iniesta into the midfield and play a second string player, either Bojan or Hleb, on the right instead of Leo Messi. The return of Alves at right back will help our attacking options but the style of play seen against Atlético at the Camp Nou won't be repeated, in this match or many others.

If on Sunday evening we have seen Barça go to one of La Liga's most intimidating arenas and win three points we should regard it as a success, even if we've seen a laboured performance and the winner bounces in off Eric Abidal's backside. Matches after international breaks are notrious for the amount of upsets big sides suffer against sides like Athletic who have quality in the squad but few players representing their national teams. After Sunday we can worry about the aesthetics again but the priority in San Mamés is to put points on the board and keep up the momentum as we look to move towards the top of the table. Let's hope for a win, but don't be surprised if we're not treated to the beautiful game we so often associate with our club.

Visca el Barça i Visca la Penya.

6-1, 442, 19/10

As I type away, possibly speaking to myself as I don't know if anybody else reads my ramblings, it is raining in Calpe (Comunitat Valenciana) on this the 9th October, the day of Valencia. The fiesta means a day off work, but the rain means there is naff all to do and the power has already cut out once which upsets my satellite TV receiver, which will in all likelihood now proceed to keep turning itself on and off until I unplug it for several hours, rendering me without any viewing options aside from Spanish terrestrial television. Which doesn't count. Unless you happen to like South American soaps and non-stop news bulletins about the economy.

Today's blog has a lot of numbers in the title. This is an editorial device used to trick people into reading this drivel in the hope that they will want to know what the numbers refer to. If you've got this far, well done!

To kick off, everybody in Barcelona is still very happy about last Saturday's 6-1 mauling of Atletico de Madrid. Even this blog had been drawn in by the pre-match hype surrounding "title challengers" and "Messi v Aguero" only for all the pretense to be unveiled as a sham within about 8 minutes, by which time Barça were 3-0 up and the game was over....aside from the other 4 goals. The 90 minutes at Camp Nou on Saturday contained some of FCB's most sumptuous football, hitting the high notes throughout and entertaining in the extreme. Football doesn't get much better than that from a purely aesthetic point of view. Obviously games which provide slightly more competition can be equally entertaining but for the sheer spectacle provided by Barça's attacking play, we may already have seen the peak of La Liga's 08/09 season.

Friendly neighbour

Special thanks must go to our friendly neighbours at Montjuic who travelled to Madrid, the home of the axis of evil, and returned to Catalunya with a point - having more significantly relieved Real Madrid of two. More neighbourly love will be in the offering when La Liga returns from an enforced break; the Madrid derby takes centre stage in Jornada 7 and Barça will be hoping that they will be the beneficiaries of a potentially tricky game for the scum at Atleti's place.

This month sees the PUB play a starring role in FourFourTwo (442) magazine as part of an article about incomprehensible people who support foreign teams and have failed to be convinced by the Premier League's media machine. It is entirely possible that Richard Scudamore has dispatched death squads to hunt down such vile traitors and naysayers who have turned thair backs on the greatest league in the world (copyright Sky Sports) so if the Penya is a few members short at the next meeting we will know why. This publicity will hopefully bring the Penya to the attention of many UK Barça fans who were previously unaware of our existance and the forum has already gained some more posters through the article.

19/10 - the 19th October is Barça's next game, away at Athletic Club de Bilbao at the famous Catedral of San Mames. Our Basque cousins usually give us a fairly feisty welcome and the game is often very tight so another 6-1 is not to be expected. Returning from Euskadi with 3 points is of course the main objective but until Barça's players are returned by their countries we will have little idea what team we can put out. News so far is that Leo Messi has limped out of a training session with the albiceleste in Buenos Aires but he isn't thought to have a serious injury. It remains to be seen if Argentina will risk Messi in their game against Uruguay but given their track record of not giving a shit if they cripple the lad or not we can't expect any cotton wool treatment from the South Americans towards our star player. Other Barça players face the prospect of taking on world football superpowers such as Chad, Madagascar, Estonia and England.

Cry Me a River Perikitos, and Messi v Kun

The disgraceful actions of Barça's banned hooligan element marred an otherwise excellent victory in the last ever away match against Espanyol within the city of Barcelona. The club with more chips than your average McDonald's, all sported on the shoulder and all against Barça, showed little ambition, little knowledge of how to arrange security at a top flight football game and next to no class in the aftermath of an eventful Catalan derbi.

Were it not for those thoughtful fellows from the Boixos Nois one Medina Cantalejo would have stolen all the headlines in the aftermath of the game. A man who is supposed to be one of Spain's best referees (the competition is slim) managed to bungle his way through 90 minutes pleasing nobody but himself until he contrived to award FCB a last gasp penalty for a debatable foul on Samuel Eto'o as the Cameroonian burst through on goal. The first half was only notable for Barça's complete dominance, Medina Cantalejo harshly sending off Nene of Espanyol and Medina Cantalejo allowing Espanyol's opener despite a blatant foul on Victor Valdes by the Perikos' king of gamesmanship Luis Garcia. The man from L'Hospitalet should still have done far better in dealing with the ball which Pique had scooped up in the air but his catch/tip over was impeded.

The 2nd half of El Derbi was when it got really interesting. The Boixos Nois started throwing flares at the Espanyol fans below and a few Perikos saw this as an excuse to invade the pitch. Medina, viewing this as a risk to the players' safety, stopped the game for around 8 minutes and on resumption Barça were soon level through a fortunate goal from Henry after his first touch went away from him but Kameni in the blanquiblau goal could only palm the ball against his own defender and the rebound dropped kindly for Thierry who gratefully bagged a rare goal in the blaugrana shirt. It was no more than Barça deserved after incessant pressure and plenty of chances. What came next will go down in folklore for both clubs, for differing reasons. With the TV channels and the fans unsure of how much time was left to be played the match ran on and on, according to La Sexta the match was in the 92nd minute when the 4th official raised the board to show 3 minutes of injury time. 2 minutes later and Samuel Etoo was released into the box by Leo Messi. Pareja lunged for the ball. Samu fell under the challenge. PENALTY! It looked like a stonewaller on the TV in real time but replays showed that Pareja had possibly got a slight touch of the ball before felling Etoo. No matter, Barça had the penalty and a chance to kick Espanyol out of Barcelona in style...they move to the nearby town of Cornella next season. Messi showed no remorse and coolly slotted the penalty to give Barça a famous win in the last derbi at the historic Montjuic stadium.

Post match reactions from Espanyol were hysterical. The perikos' neurotic president Daniel Sanchez Llibre was apoplectic with rage and proceeded to squeal about the league being "prostituted" and the referee arriving with the sole intention of screwing his football club. "Dani" forgets of course that Espanyol aren't important enough for anybody to think of screwing them but the Perikos think they're on a higher plane after recent success in the Copa del Rei and the UEFA Cup. Success, of course, in a relative sense. The Monday after the game saw rumours of Espanyol reporting Barça's victorious players to the police for having the audacity to celebrate the winning goal in front of the travelling fans. Espanyol intrepreted this as inciting the half dozen or so fans who threw flares to partake in that disgraceful act, despite the fact that the flares had already been thrown. This blog believes that those players had every right to celebrate in front of the 600 or so Cules who behaved themselves and enjoy a special moment in beating the local upstarts.

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Wednesday night was all about the man above. Let's be frank here, Barça were shocking for large parts of the game in Donetsk but the sheer class of Lionel Messi was enough to turn around the game for FCB. The winner was of high quality from a player who continues to stake his claim to the title of "best player in the world". This is not to be confused, as in the UK media, for the award for "most photogenic player in the world" which Cristiano "pay me more" Ronaldo owns. Shakhtar had, for much of the game, given an uncomfortable lesson to other less ambitious teams in how to get a result against Barça. The Ukranian side was well organised, physical and savvy in defence. Barça got out of jail thanks to a goalkeeping error and a superb combination between Iniesta dn Messi to secure a result which was ill-deserved. Against Atleti on Saturday the boys in Blaugrana will have to step it up considerably and Pep must almost certainly rethink his selections, specifically with regards to Keita & Yaya in the same midfield and a certain sulky, lazy Frenchman who is currently to be seen plodding about up front in FC Barcelona's No. 14 shirt. Unless Henry improves, in PUB blog's opinion he has no place in a Barça side. In Ukraine Henry's only contribution was ensuring that the far more valuable Samuel Eto'o had to play out of position which limited his effectiveness. Bojan and Pedro look better options than the expensive purchase from Arsenal right now and that should be a concern for all Barça fans.

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Saturday, 10pm Catalan time, sees a clash which is being billed as a battle between two of world footballs brightest young stars, both Argentinian, both billed as "the next Maradona" (who isn't?) and both absolutely breath taking on their day.

The blog is extremely envious of Atleti because El Kun is a brilliant player and one who would fill the left-hand slot of Barça's attacking trident to perfection. Atleti have traditionally been far more capable of getting results at Camp Nou than pretty much any team aside from Valencia and Saturday will be a stern test of Pep Guardiola's developing side. Cules should bear in mind that we are still in a somewhat transitional phase but PUB blog sees positive signs, in attack at least, that this side will come good in the end. At the time of writing we have strung together 5 wins in a row without ever hitting top gear, even when we were hitting 6 in Gijon. If Pep can settle on his best XI and play that side as much as possible then we have a fighting chance in all competitions this season but it's clear thus far that the Catalan hasn't yet quite decided on his ideal starting lineup and as a consequence performances aren't hitting the heights and in defence we look shakey. The priority must be deciding upon a regular CB partnership which will be Puyol +1 other. Until that happens the miscommunications and mistakes in defence will continue and if that isn't resolved soon it will impede the side's progress.

Despite these concerns PUB blog believes that onwards and upwards is Barça's destination in the short to medium term and we have every confidence in Pep and the team. A win tomorrow would certainly go a long way to allaying any lingering concerns.

As ever, ahead of all the weekend action which sees cules become perikos for 90 minutes on Sunday it's Visca el Barça i Visca la Penya!