Is Madrid's Dominance Seasonal, or Has Balance of Barca Rivalry Entered New Era?

It was physical, choppy and intense, but more than anything, it was heated—both on the pitch and in the stands. 

As Barcelona tackled Athletic Club Bilbao on Wednesday night, as spot fires broke out regularly, as Luis Suarez was wrongly denied to continue a perceived sense of injustice, the chant rang around, loudly, over and over: "¡Tebas vete ya!" (Tebas, go now!)

The Camp Nou is not renowned for being raucous or hostile, but on Wednesday, there was a uniting cause.

Javier Tebas, of course, is the president of La Liga, but not just any president. He's the man who's openly a Real Madrid fan; the man who didn't defend Barcelona when bottles were thrown at them at Mestalla but instead ridiculed them for falling like it was "ten-pin bowling," according to SportYou (via AS' Moises Llorens); the man to whom Gerard Pique stopped and pointed at following the controversial draw at Villarreal where Bruno got away with being a second goalkeeper. 

"Did you see that?" shouted Pique just in front of the dugout, according to AS, finger up, gesturing furiously at the presidential box. "Yes, you!"

Officially, Barcelona have distanced themselves from Pique's protestations, but he's continued. He said the state of refereeing is seeing Barcelona play not football but "roulette," the suggestion or accusation clear.

It's true that Barcelona have had a handful of decisions go against them in recent games, but you sense the fury and then the hysteria that follows is fuelled by something beyond the surface and beyond referees. 

By their own standards, Barcelona are struggling. Leading individuals such as Suarez and Neymar have slipped this season, and the new arrivals have made little impact. But there's a more collective element here.

Barca's on-field identity has been drifting, doubt surrounds the future of manager Luis Enrique, the mood around the club is tense more than anything, and there's a feeling that the Catalans are being pushed into an unfamiliar place—and it's their rivals who are pushing them there. 

In different circumstances, Barcelona's slips wouldn't feel so cataclysmic, but Madrid are changing the point of comparison. Zinedine Zidane's men just won't lose. You have to go back to April to find the last time they did; back to February for their last loss in the league. 

On and on, the men from the Santiago Bernabeu continue to rumble. The squad they've assembled looks deep, settled and, most importantly, happy. The stars are leading the way as ever, but the fringe men are pushing them hard, driving internal competition sky-high and elevating performance levels. Remarkably, 20 of Madrid's players have scored this season. 

On Sunday, the men in white travel south to face Sevilla. A win would be an enormous step toward the league title—five points ahead (and possibly more) with a game in hand, having already completed the four toughest away trips in the league.

Not for years have Madrid been in a position like this, and that matters. Barcelona's domestic dominance in recent years (six of the last eight league titles) has been so extreme that post-2008 has witnessed the biggest shift in power in more than half a century, since Alfredo Di Stefano's arrival at Madrid in 1953.

This season's turning of the tide, then, raises intriguing questions: Is Madrid's dominance just seasonal? Is this another 2011-12, a mountaintop with a steep decent on the other side? Or is this something more lasting—has the complexion of this rivalry entered a new era?

It's tempting to believe it has. For years, Madrid have been getting in their own way, busy being their own worst enemy. Barcelona's excellence has compounded that, but the picture looks different now.

While the Catalans have uncertainty over Luis Enrique and the looming financial headaches of renewing Lionel Messi's contract and renovating the Camp Nou at a time when player salaries are approaching the limit in terms of percentage of turnover, Madrid are comparatively sound. 

In Chamartin, the books are healthy, and major stars have all been secured long-term. Beyond money, the manager in Zidane is as secure as someone in his position can be, and there's suddenly a certain harmony that wasn't there before between what the club are doing off the pitch and what they're doing on it. 

Extrapolate the immediate trajectories and you're looking at a Madrid surge. But that's the complicating factor: progress in football isn't linear. 

Madrid's short-term outlook is good, but there are elements to the longer-term view that contest the idea of the capital club entering a new golden age. Those elements revolve around the three biggest men at the club: Cristiano Ronaldo, Florentino Perez and Zidane. 

Periods of sustained dominance, after all, are built on exceptional players above everything. Spain's pair of behemoths have no shortage of such, but the simple matter of time is key here.

At 31, Ronaldo is two-and-a-half years older than Messi. The Portuguese is a physical phenomenon, a player possessing a sort of drive, relentlessness and single-mindedness the rest of us can barely comprehend. Nevertheless, it remains inescapable that Madrid will reach a future without him (or without a peak version of him) sooner than Barcelona will with Messi. 

Can Madrid build an empire if their rivals are going to have the undisputed emperor?

It also matters that the men in the capital have stumbled into their success rather than astutely building it. Zidane, remember, was appointed midseason amid an institutional crisis just 12 months ago. He represented an alluring idea, but he was also elevated because other options were scarce; because Madrid needed an icon to believe in rather than someone to coach them; because Perez needed to insulate himself. 

Since the Frenchman's appointment, Perez—by his standards—has been subdued. Not a single player arrived last winter. Only Alvaro Morata came in last summer. This January, the club are handcuffed by a transfer ban. 

How long, then, will this harmony last? Will Madrid's president recognise cause and effect and see stability as the way forward? Or will he drive familiar and problematic upheaval through the pursuit of more glamour, chasing the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Paulo Dybala and more, repeating previous mistakes, neglecting to address an ageing defence and a base of midfield that needs strengthening?

The presence of an empowered Zidane has the ability to temper such an approach; perhaps Jose Mourinho aside, no manager has ever held this much influence under Perez. But that will only be the case as long as Zidane is winning and is able to prolong his success. At present, he's the right man at the right club at the right time. But time changes; he'll soon need to evolve—a process even the great managers battle with. 

It's why it's difficult to look at this linearly. Madrid possess all the hallmarks of a title-winning team but not necessarily all of the building blocks for a generational one. This season, the balance of power has shifted. But it hasn't gone so far as to herald a new era in the rivalry.