Business as usual for Barca

WHILE Palermo and Portsmouth give an unfamiliar early-season look to the top of Serie A and the Premiership, it seems to be business as usual in both Spain and France.

Easy away wins for both Barcelona and Lyon at the weekend confirmed that the champions are reproducing their excellent European form in their own leagues as well.

For Barca, Gianluca Zambrotta is providing just the combination of experience and flexibility that was needed to strengthen the defence, and the team’s immense quality in midfield is allowing them to play a 4-1-4-1 formation with Samuel Eto’o up front, and Eidur Gudjohnsen to provide a clever variation. On Sunday, Barca scored twice in the closing minutes to win 3-0 against Racing Santander after Gudjohnsen replaced Eto’o in attack.