The LFP have confirmed the final kick off times of the year. Barça will finish this epic month with a trip to Villarreal on Sunday 21st December with a kick off time of 7pm. We now know the times of all the games this month: might just have time to organise a christmas party now. Barça play Valencia this Saturday (6th) at 10pm, we then receive Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Tuesday 9th, kick off 8.45pm. Having rested all our key players against Shakhtar we face Real Madrid at Camp Nou on Saturday 13th kick off 10pm, and the month finishes on...

According to the two local sports papers the date and time of this season's first clasico match with Real Madrid has been set for Saturday 13th December with a 10pm kick off time. However, the report has yet to be confirmed by the club's webpage or by the LFP. The reports also say the referee for the game will be Luis Medina Cantalejo. This is the guy who gave us a disputable injury time penalty against Espanyol earlier this season. But before you get too happy about his appointment you should remember he also ignored a foul on Victor Valdés for the Espanyol goal in that game. Here's what I...

As expected France Football has announced that this year's Ballon d'Or winner is Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo who earned 446 voting points from the 96 judges. Barça's Leo Messi was runner-up with 281 points while Xavi Hernandez was fifth with 97 points and Samuel Eto'o was seventeenth. Cristiano Ronaldo was always the most likely winner having scored 42 goals in the 2007/2008 season and won the Premiership and the Champions League with Manchester United. Ronaldo can now proudly boast that he is the world's best player. It must be because Messi is from another planet!

The top 20 was as follows:

.1. Cristiano Ronaldo...

Not really much surprise here. Despite some excellent performances from his team mates in November, Leo Messi who won the award in October is once again my player of the month. Messi played in 7 games this month, and the only one of those games that he didn't score in was possibly his best game of the month: the 6-0 victory over Valladolid. Toure Yaya comes in second and it is great to see the big man back in such excellent form after a slow start to the season. Captain Carles Puyol is third, he has excelled in every defensive position this month but he was especially impressive in the swimming...

The draw for the Copa del Rey was made today and Barça have been given a difficult task of playing Atletico Madrid in the last 16. The first game will take place at the Vicente Calderon stadium on January 7th with the return game at Camp Nou on January 14th. The last game between the two clubs ended in a 6-1 home victory for Barça at the start of October.

The draw was also made for the quarter finals and the semi finals. If Barça beat Atletico there is a big chance of a derby match against Espanyol in the quarter finals as Barça will face the winner of Espanyol - Poli Ejido, the first game would be away on January 21st with the return at Camp Nou on 28th January. In a possible semi final we would play whoever...

Barça continued their incredible winning streak away from home with a 0-3 win at the Sanchez Pizjuan that put Barça six points clear at the top of the table tonight with Villarreal and Valencia playing tomorrow. The scoreline suggests an easy win and in the end it was, but Sevilla had the edge in the first half and Barça needed a bit of luck to go in at half time in front through Samuel Eto'o's goal. The second half was totally controlled by Barça and two late goals from Leo Messi sealed the victory.

The defences were generally on top early on with the first real chance falling to Luis Fabiano in the tenth minute but he volleyed over....

According to El Sport Xavi Hernandez has agreed a deal to stay at Barça until 2014. Negotiations have been going on for a while now but according to the report Joan Laporta met Xavi and his agent on Friday afternoon and the deal was struck. Xavi will become the fourth highest earner after Messi, Henry and Eto'o, and with bonuses could earn in the region of €7.5M a season. The report has still not been confirmed by the club but according to El Sport they are waiting for Txiki Begiristain to get back from Japan where he is visiting his sick brother. Xavi has been one of our most consistent players this season and I'd like to say he deserves it: but of course nobody deserves that much money just for chasing a ball around...

Carles Puyol and Toure Yaya return to the squad for tomorrow's heavyweight game against Sevilla (kick off 10pm) as Barça enter the terrific run up to Christmas with league games to follow against Valencia, Real Madrid and Villarreal. The players will train in Barcelona tomorrow morning before catching a 12.00 flight to Seville. Barça will be looking to reach their tenth consecutive away win but Sevilla are the hardest challenge so far.

Sevilla began the season strongly and were unbeaten in all competitions until a run of four consecutive defeats which has since been followed by three wins and a draw going into tommorrow's game. In La Liga they are currently fifth on 24 points, five points behind Barça, so a win would...

Sorry, I'm a bit late on this one. But for those of you who don't already know next weekend's league game with Valencia at Camp Nou has been set for Saturday 6th December with a kick off time of 10pm local time. Last season's league game ended in a 6-0 victory for Barça. With this year's team would should at least double that!

Barça got the season back on track tonight with a 2-5 win in Lisbon earning first place in Group C which means an easier draw in the last 16.  Since losing to Numancia at the end of August Barça have now clocked up 9 away wins on the trot, five in La Liga, three in the Champions league and one in the Copa del Rey. Leo Messi returned to the team and talk about Messi dependence will no doubt continue as he played a part in the first two goals and scored the third shortly before being substituted. With Messi off the pitch Barça conceded two goals in two minutes to put Sporting back in the game, but Barça reacted well with two more goals to seal the win.

Pep Guardiola made six changes to...