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.