Unbeatable?

Barcelona entered the record books the other night with an impressive 3-0 win over a helpless Atletico Madrid in order to stretch their run of straight wins to 16.

The win saw them overtake a previous best of 15 wins-in-a-row from the 1960/61 team of Real Madrid, thanks to a superb performance and hat-trick from on-form Lionel Messi.

The La Liga leaders currently sit top of the Spanish league with a vital 7-point lead over challenges Madrid and after they demolished Jose Mourinho's team early on in the season (5-0) the question on everyone's lips is; "Are Barcelona unstoppable?"

Now we all understand that the Spanish League has it's own certain quality to it like the English Premiership, but does it have that sense of competition? We saw a team with the overall second worst form in the Premier league, Wolves, beat Manchester United and put a halt to their 29-match unbeaten run; does La Liga offer such teams that are so riddled with determination that they can overturn a team of Barcelona's stature?

Well the answer is no.

Sure you have your teams like Atletico Madrid and Villarael that all pose some quality talents in their team, but is there truthfully any other team that can cause an upset against the two leading giants in the league?

But then I would have to contradict myself; Monday 31st January - Osasuna 1-0 Real Madrid; Now by my records that is a massive upset.

Some people have their comparisons with the Spanish League and the Scottish league which, in some way, is right; two teams fighting over the title and the domestic cup. And then these people ring around the same argument week in and week out; "A team like Celtic or Barcelona need a real challenge, stick them in the Premiership and see how they handle themselves in a game like an away trip to Stoke on a rainy Tuesday night".

People also have an simular arguement when it comes to comapring the skillful talents of Messi and Christiano Ronaldo; "Well Ronaldo has proved that he can perform in the hardest League in the world, The Premier League, so he must be the better player of the two?".

Unfortunatly we will probably never see the day when Messi comes over to England so that is an argument that just can not be settled at this time.

As much as I enjoy watching the delights of Spanish football I still have a sense of pride that I follow the toughest and most challenging league in the world, The English Premiership(My opinion of most likely a lot of other peoples as well).

So when Arsenal entertain Barcelona next week in a Champions League game, that will be watched by a huge percentage of the public, it will be interesting to see if  Barcelona can hold out for a win on English soil when they are currently in the best form of the clubs history.

Money, money and more money

The total January transfer spending for the season of 2009-2010 was just under the sum of £30 million, a year on and it has rocketed to over six times that amount to a staggering £201 million.

Now, there were five major transfers that stood out for me.

I'm going to try and stay away from making obvious points to how much money was spent and if these players were really worth what each club paid for them; all I'm going to do is analyse which club got the best deal.

However, before we begin this discussion you have to remember that this is the English transfer market we are talking about; you'll be getting high prices for players that haven't proved themselves on big stages.

An example of how over-rated the English market is, compared to any other European market, would be the David Villa transfer in the summer. He was captured by Barcelona for £34 million; Villa being a part of a World Cup winning team and scoring a staggering 43 goals in 53 games in his 2009-2010 season.

Some may argue that David Villa is as good as his Spanish striking partner Fernando Torres or maybe even better when comparing their scoring tally in the 2009-2010 season; though Torres scored an impressive 22 goals in 32 appearances in an injury hit year. But what makes Torres worth £16 million more than his Spaniard friend? (Torres moving to Chelsea for a whopping £50 million)

Two of the first January signings in the Premier League were Bosnian and English strikers Edin Dzeko and Darren Bent.

After the 2009-2010 season Dzeko became Wolfburg's all-time leading league goal scorer with a record of 59 goals in 96 games; this impressive strike rate saw the big bucks of Manchester City swoop him away from the German league for £27 million.

The latter of the two, Bent, turned his attention to Aston Villa in a switch worth £18 million that could eventually rise to £24 million. Now, there is one thing that the Englishman can promise as a player and that is goals. He isn't any trouble on or off the pitch and he just plays for the satisfaction of proving his striking talent to the fans; he is someone that can prove his worth and live up to his price tag.

The thing is we all know Bent can score goals in the English league, but it is a huge risk when it comes to clubs spending mass amounts on a foreign player not knowing how long it will take for them to find their feet in the Premier League.

With the transfer window ticking away there was still many deals that were to stun the top flight of English football on Monday night, all involving the red side of Merseyside.

With the loss of their number 9 Liverpool went searching for a replacement striker; but instead of just one replacement, they settled with two.

The first front man that Kenny Dagliesh secured was the Uruguayan talent of Luis Suarez from Ajax in a deal worth £22.8 million; a deal that is very much appreciated considering his outstanding goal record. Suarez scored a staggering 49 goals in all competitions in the 2009-2010 season and was named as the Dutch footballer of the year. He also performed on the big stage at last years 2010 World Cup; even though he was accused with an act of cheating to help his team progress further in the competition.

It seemed to be the best piece of business in the January transfer window and it concluded that Liverpool had completed a sensible deal for a superstar of a player, but then they decided one new striker wasn't enough.

The reds had been in a bidding war with Newcastle throughout January for the signature of Andy Carroll but they had failed in many attempts; this was until The Toon held out for a staggering £35 million.

Now remember that David Villa moved for £34 million and Suarez moved for £22.8 million; both cheaper than the 22 year-old Jordy. The question is, will Carroll be able to replace the goals that Torres would have scored for such an astonishing amount of money?

An interesting fact that Liverpool may want to take into consideration; they are getting a player (Carroll) who was outscored in the Championship last season by Peter Whittingham, Nicky Maynard, Gary Hooper, Michael Chopra and Charlie Adam.

But like I stated at the beginning, I have tried to steer clear of any arguments and just state what the best deal was; Luis Suarez with out a shadow of a doubt.