Barcelona 3 - Atletico de Madrid 0: Too Many Superlatives

Barcelona erased Atletico from the field of play Saturday night and set yet another record in the process. Barca have won 16 straight in the league - a record that trumps the record of 15 straight wins set by the Real Madrid of Di Stefano's era. Considering that La Liga is a much more competitive place in today's era, that's an amazing record.

Last year's Barcelona set it's fair share of records, yet I still felt that the Barca of the 08-09 season, Pep Guardiola's first, was the best Barca ever - and best soccer club ever. The trident of Messi, Eto'o, and Henry was just too effective for me to rate an Ibrahimovic-led Barca higher. Then came the 2010-2011 season.

This season's FC Barcelona is the best soccer club I've ever seen. They're rolling over strong, effective clubs as if they didn't exist. Somehow it seems that they're playing on cruise control, as if they were the Harlem Globetrotters sent to put on show against the local team from Bufu, Renada - population 2,106. They've already broken their share of records and they're sure to break more.

Here are a few other things that are amazing about this year's FC  Barcelona club:

• Their powerful trident of Messi, Villa and Pedro has 50 goals in the Spanish league - more than Real Madrid's  48 - which  is the second most prolific team in the league.
• Messi, Villa and Pedro have scored 76 goals in all competitions and are on pace to wipe away the record of 100 set over the course of a whole season by Messi, Eto'o and Henry.
• Every (non-goalkeeper) player on Barcelona has scored this year with the exception of Javier Mascherano. It's a good bet that he'll score sooner or later this year.
• Barca's second team: the one that includes Pinto, Adriano, Maxwell, Milito, Mascherano, Thiago, Afellay, Bojan and Nolito - is amazing. They're playing almost as well as the starting lineup.The ability to make rotations with a relatively small squad  is one of the greatest strengths of this club.