Back in action and back on top. With a comfortable 4-0 win over newly promoted Elche CF on Sunday, FC Barcelona reclaimed their place at the top of La Liga, extending their run of consecutive match days in first place to a scarcely believable 56. That's almost a season and a half without another single team ever truly claiming top spot. When one considers the vast sum of money that Real Madrid have spent, not to mention the amount of column inches dedicated to Atletico Madrid, that feat is nothing short of spectacular.
Not bad for a Barcelona side that's supposedly in decline.
After all, as much as we love to reminisce about the Pep Guardiola era, has there ever been a spell quite like this?
The club are rooted on top of La Liga for over a season, and the goalscoring burden is not only being shared a little better, but the likes of Pedro, Neymar and now Alexis Sanchez are actually taking over. In the past few weeks, each of those three players has grabbed a hat-trick.
Can you remember anything similar under Pep?
Of course, this is all meaningless if Barca cannot follow through and deliver success. We'll likely witness next weekend whether this side can rival Pep's, but for now, the signs are encouraging.
