Pep Guardiola's Barcelona: Beauty in Motion

The Emirates Stadium has become accustomed to witnessing some wonderful football since it’s opening in 2006, Arsenal have played the best football in the country for quite some time, due to Wenger’s devotion to playing football with style to the highest technical standards.

However, the Arsenal faithful, along with the rest of the world, witnessed in the opening 20 minutes last night, a footballing clinic. It wasn’t from the boys in red and white but by a truly special Barcelona side under the stewardship of Pep Guardiola.

In the first half in last night’s Champions League quarterfinal, Barcelona played out one of, if not, the most sensational halves of football that I have ever had the pleasure to watch.

Johan Cryuff’s "dream team" in the early '90s set the precedent for how Barcelona had to play, with Pep Guardiola being a key member of the squad that won the European Cup in 1992.

Pep, now the manager of the current Barca side, has instilled his vision of how the Catalans should play, and that  philosophy of beautiful football is put into practice when his players take to the field.

They are the masters of “tiki-taka;” a style of play involving lots of short, fast, and precise passes. Guardiola’s idea is simple: move the ball quicker than the opponent can cover the ground.

The Barcelona machine works from the collective unit down to the individual—something the likes of Real Madrid should learn from—but it also helps when a team has the best passer in the world in Xavi, and his teammate Andres Iniesta, who isn’t too bad either, and complete the triumvirate with a certain Leo Messi.

This is a side that moves the ball with precision, with every outfield player always on the move to create angles to devastating effect. Dani Alves and either Abidal or Maxwell push high up the field acting as wingers often overlapping Messi and Pedro who come inside to create options for the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets. It is the perfect example of how a team simply equates to more than the sum of its individual parts.

Barca have a side full of technical brilliance but the most impressive quality displayed by this great side is each other’s willingness to work for the team. The way in which this team presses the ball in numbers is outstanding. Arsenal are a side full of technical quality but they were left in a daze last night in that first half.

How could a team that keeps the ball better than most sides in Europe surrender possession so easily? Xavi orchestrated the tempo of the game last night with everything positive from Barcelona, coming through him.

Leo Messi is the best individual player in this team but Xavi is the one that makes the team really play. His first touch gives him half a yard of space as soon as he receives the ball and he knows where he wants to play the ball even before he receives it. He is a midfield maestro that I believe will help lead Spain to World Cup glory in South Africa this summer.

Real Madrid of the '50s, Ajax of the early '70s, Milan of the late '80s/early '90s are remembered as the great European sides, and I believe Barcelona will be placed in that pantheon of greats if they are to become the first team to retain the Champions League since its inception in 1992.

They boast a supremely talented young manager in Pep Guardiola, who led them to glory in no less than six competitions last season; the current World Player of the Year in Leo Messi, whose manager says he has run out of superlatives to describe the Argentinian genius; as well as the best midfielder in the world in Xavi, with Iniesta not too far behind. Quite frankly, the list seems to go on.

Another special factor about this side is the amount of players that have come through at “La Masia” including Valdes, Pique (although sold and bought back), Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Messi, and Pedro, the famous production line is showing no signs of slowing up just yet.

These stars are moulded and raised the Barca way and the quantity of home-grown talent goes to show that investment in youth can trump the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea, or Manchester City’s way of spending hundreds of millions on talent to get to the top. That is not to say Barcelona do not spend big, because the signings of Ibrahimovic and Alves are evidence of that but they feel their own talent is worth much more.

This is a great side and who knows they may yet be regarded as the greatest in history. It is just incomprehensible how a team enjoys between 60 percent and 80 percent of ball possession in every match they play. Barcelona’s football is beauty in motion, winning is one thing but winning with breathtaking, attacking football is something special and that is what this side has achieved and is still achieving.