Balague: No Ben Arfa for Barca

In his La Liga review, Guillem Balague reckons Barcelona have rediscovered the intensity they need to win the title and denies rumours they will be signing Hatem Ben Arfa this summer.

Barcelona found motivation and intensity when they needed it most

Luis Enrique’s players started both halves against Espanyol on Sunday looking like the Barcelona of old. They fell asleep a little bit after scoring the first goal, but their opponents didn’t have much of a threat, beyond a little bit of (legal) aggression.

Espanyol didn’t play too much football and had three defensive midfielders, which didn’t really make much sense after conceding an early goal.

It didn’t help that goalkeeper Pau Lopez decided to try and provoke Barcelona by saying he wanted one of the Madrid sides to win the league.

That’s a big mistake to make against Barcelona!

Real Madrid could easily have lost to Valencia

Pako Ayestaran set his Valencia team up with the intention of winning the game at Real Madrid on Sunday – and they could have pulled it off.

Valencia played really well in the second half and the momentum only stopped when Rodrigo was sent off for saying something to the linesman – something which doesn’t often result in a red card.

One of the contradictions of this Real Madrid team is that Zinedine Zidane has made the team competitive again and everyone is happier – but there was still some confusion in the game that suggests he is still not a top manager.

He wanted to put Alvaro Arbeloa on and take off James Rodriguez – until Cristiano Ronaldo told him that Lucas Vazquez was injured and needed to be taken off instead.

However, Zidane has given authority and responsibility to the players and they have responded to him. Thirteen consecutive victories in the league is a really good record.

Cristiano Ronaldo just keeps scoring. As I always said, he has reached his peak physically but he will still score goals because he has so much talent. He doesn’t influence matches as much, but he still pops up with goals, which are very useful to the …

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