A 3-0 victory over Valladolid means that Barcelona have, for the first time in their long, illustrious history, finished the first half of the season unbeaten. Amazing, really, would have expected it to have happened more often.
Xavi and Alves scored within minutes of each other midway through the first half and it was then all over bar the shouting. Messi, who else, added the third to give Barcelona a pretty comfortable victory.
Sevilla returned to winning ways after a run of four defeats in a row, just squeezing past Almeria 1-0, and are in sixth place in La Liga. Negredo scored the only goal of the match after just nine minutes of play.