Madrid’s shambolic fight club braced for Barcelona to land knockout blow

Head coach Álvaro Arbeloa is facing the bitterest of ends as faint hopes are set to be extinguished by fiercest rivals

The vice-captain was taken to hospital for stitches having been laid out by his midfield partner. Another midfielder said he wouldn’t play any more; as if he was going to play anyway. The manager wasn’t asking for much, just that they didn’t swan out there as if wearing tuxedos, and that’s still asking too much. The centre-back hit the left-back. The winger fell out with the last coach. The captain fell out with this coach. And the superstar, already accused of not caring, swanning off to Sardinia, drives out of the training ground, past the cameras and away from the whole sorry mess, laughing his head off. Now here’s Barcelona.

You think things can’t get any worse but things can always get worse. The most painful week anyone could remember, maybe the biggest, most public crisis they have ever had, concludes with Real Madrid travelling to the Camp Nou on Sunday for the clásico. If they don’t win, and few believe they can given the football they play and the faultlines that run through their dressing room, they will watch Barcelona become champions with three games left, going down as the flames go higher and history is made. It would be the first time in 94 years a meeting of sport’s great rivals decides the title – only this title has long been decided, both cause and consequence of the turmoil Madrid are in.