FC Barcelona moved to the top of the table with a hard fought 2-0 victory over Osasuna at the Camp Nou. Second half goals from Ibrahmovic and Bojan Krkic was enough to see Barca through a very tricky match. A very well organised Osasuna side made it very difficult for Barca and this match definitely was a good test for the Barca side ahead of the Arsenal clash. Everyone was expecting Lionel Messi to be rested after his recent heroics but that was not to be. Guardiola lined-up his regular attacking line against Osasuna with Messi pairing Ibrahimovic and Henry. The midfield had the expected look with Iniesta, Busquets and Toure paired together. Maxwell, Puyol, Milito and Alves formed the defense infront of Valdes.FC Barcelona Struggles Against a Determined Osasuna Defense
The match was an open one in the early exchanges. Fc barcelona had their first shot on target in the 2nd minute. Messi fed Ibrahimovic, who cut inside but his final shot was saved by Osasuna custodian, Ricardo. Osasuna immediately responded with 
Vadocz breaking the offside trap and forcing Valdes to make an excellent stop. Osasuan then started piling up the pressure causing quite an amount of panic in the Barca backline. In the 15th minute Ricardo scrambles to deny after he initially failed to deal with the corner. The tempo of the game dropped drastically from then on. Iniesta made some surging runs but was either crowded out by an organised defense or the final ball wasn't dealt properly by Barca players. Osasuna made sure that they double marked Messi whenever he got hold of the ball and was very successful in containing him.
Fc Barcelona Shows More Intent in the Second Half
Guardiola introduced Pedro in place of Henry and that resulted in changing the tempo of the game. In the 53rd minute Pedro spotted Messi's run and tried to loft the ball over the defense but it was just out of reach for Messi. In the 63rd minute Iniesta sent in a good cross into the centre but Toure could only head wide. In the 68th 
minute Busquets was taken off and Keita was introduced. In the 71st minute Keita had a great chance but could only head straight at Ricardo from an Alves cross; the rebound fell to Ibra but was denied by a last gasp Flano intervention. Finally in the 72nd minute Barca managed to break through Osasuna defense with Ibra scoring. Pedro played the ball to Iniesta on the left, who then drove the ball low into the centre and Ibrahimovic did well to slot it home. That was the last touch of Swede as he was replaced by Bojan in the next minute. Barca kept on looking for the second goal and most of the move came through Iniesta on the left. In the 88th Bojan sealed the match for Barca when he tapped in a cross from Iniesta at the near post in a move started by himself in the middle.
FC Barcelona performance was very sloppy in this match. The first half performance was very poor and the main reason should be Guardiola's crazy idea to use a 4-3-1-2 formation. That cut the use of width of the pitch and Henry was left starnded throughout the half. The second half saw Guardiola using the traditional formation and that resulted in creating more chances. Iniesta's performance in the second half was good, so was Toure's. Messi had an off day by his standard and it was good to see the team winning with Messi not firing. Valdes and Milito was very consistent throughout the match. With this win we have gone three points clear on top. Real Madrid visit Getafe tomorrow and will be looking to re-gain the top spot.