Xavi's Barcelona revival gives Man City a blueprint for a post-Pep Guardiola future

El Clasico is the biggest football match in the world, and on Sunday evening it did not disappoint. Barcelona put in a stunning performance to beat Real Madrid 4-0, embarrassing their fierce rivals at their Estadio Santiago Bernabeu home.

In the context of the season the shock result may not matter too much; Real Madrid are still 12 points clear of Barca and currently hold a nine-point lead at the top of La Liga, while in Europe they have a Champions League quarter-final to look forward to. However, the gulf in class between the two sides on the night left little doubt that Xavi, just four months on from returning to the club as manager, is well on his way to restoring Barca to the top tier of European football.

That is brilliant news for them, but it is also good news for Manchester City. Barcelona had been on a downwards trajectory for years before things reach crisis level earlier this season.

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Gross financial mismanagement resulted in Lionel Messi leaving the club last summer and numerous players having to restructure their contracts, while on the pitch performances had steadily been drifting away from the famous Barca style of play. The golden generation coached by Pep Guardiola was never properly reinforced or replaced, to the point that under Ronald Koeman Barca played stodgy football with little direction or identifiable style.

Barca sat ninth in the table when Koeman was sacked at the end of October, but Xavi has done remarkably well to turn things around. Sunday's 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid was a microcosm of the work he has done.

The former Barca captain has implemented a version of the style