08.02.2011 13:18

Busquets talisman

Sandra Sarmiento

The midfielder has won 22 consecutive league games to set a tournament record. Puyol is second with 21 wins.

He has an established place in this historic Barça team. With his pinpoint passing and spot-on tackling, Sergio Busquets is now an ever-present in the first team plans and has even managed to win a place ahead of the great Javier Mascherano. And when it comes to the big occasions, he can always be relied upon to deliver. He has built up an extraordinary curriculum and can now boast a record nobody has ever matched before. Whether or not it is coincidence, no player other than Busquets has ever won so many league games in a row.

Busquets = victory

Guardiola has only rested Sergio Busquets in four games this season, and as it happens, that includes the only two games the team has not won (the defeat to Hercules and the draw with Mallorca).That makes for 18 wins in a row if we count last season’s triumphs against Villarreal, Tenerife, Sevilla and Valladolid. Nobody has ever done that before, although Puyol is close behind with 21: 16 this season and 5 last year, because the captain also appeared in the game against Xerez.

Combination play

This record for Busquets goes hand in hand with the first team’s triumphant run. FCB have broken a 50 year old record and the Catalan midfielder can be proud to have made a major contribution to that in a team that is on good course to do even better than its amazing 99 point season last time out.