The Spanish League is officially alive again. FC Barcelona have enjoyed an enormous 12 point difference with the second place, but a run of 3 winless games has helped Real Madrid cut the gap to just 4 points with the top of the table. One month ago, very few thought that defending champions would be able to catch Barça. Four weeks ago, the Catalan side was not playing against other teams, but history. Now, histerical Spanish media gives out the impression that Real Madrid is already leading and marching towards a third consecutive domestic title.

So, what is really happening?

First of all, the immaculate streak of the white team. Since Juande Ramos replaced Schuster and led Real Madrid to a bearable defeat at Camp Nou , they have won 10 games in a row. In spite they have been effective rather than exciting, the new coach has managed to recover the self-esteem of the title holders. Players who were considered trash are now almost level to astonishing Barça. Ten games ago, the talk was about a cheat chairman who finally had to run away; now is about Real defeating Liverpool and catching Barcelona in addition to, of course, Madrid press favourite: ever-young Raúl to pull on the Spain shirt again.

Sure Real Madrid have reasons for optimism. At the end of the day, they won the league in similar circumstances 2 seasons ago. However, they will need more than mind games to reverse the situation completely. When it comes to football resources, Guardiola’s side has got what it takes. Analysts are talking about a downfall in fitness, defensive mistakes and referees to explain the latest bad results. Beyond that, the question is whether FC Barcelona are mentally strong enough to take on the challenges ahead of them and hold off their historical suicidal tendencies.

Star players singing out of tune off the pitch is not the kind of thing that is going to help them get back on track. When they still had the wind on their back, Eto’o started the alarms in an interview saying things like “the team that I love is Real Mallorca, Barcelona is only the place where I work”. More recently, Henry tried the all time classic chorus “Catalonia is not Spain”. Hopefully for Barcelona, competition will not leave such room for distraction until the summer.

What happens next is hard to tell. In any case, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Spanish league were to die and be born again several times yet.