In Spain, Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez is seen as the clear favorite to win the Ballon D'Or trophy, given to the world's best player. It's not difficult to see why. He exerts an unprecedented level of influence upon the biggest games in football. To wit: In Barcelona's 5-0 victory over Real Madrid on Monday in El Clasico, Xavi completed 110 passes -- the highest number for any player in any La Liga game so far this season. And that's despite being substituted a few minutes from the end.

It is the third time in four Clasicos that Xavi has been sensational. In Barcelona's 6-2 win at the Bernabeu in May 2009, he had four assists. In Barcelona's 2-0 win a year later, he created both goals. He always performs on the global stage -- at the World Cup he created 25 goal-scoring chances, eight more than anyone else in the tournament, and completed 599 passes, more than any other player in history in a single World Cup.

In this game, Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho tried to subdue him by using attacking midfielder Mesut Ozil to track him, but Xavi was still able to find space by moving into more advanced positions, from where he opened the scoring. His performances this season have been particularly special, since he's been playing with a persistent tendinitis problem in his Achilles, and so he has completed only 90 minutes in four of his 20 games for club and country.

Unless the problem clears up, Xavi may be forced to play fewer games as the season wears on, but there's no doubt that manager Pep Guardiola will continue to use him in the big matches. Xavi's performances over the past two years have elevated him to a position where he should be considered one of the best midfielders of all time.

Of course, Xavi was just one cog in the Barcelona passing machine. The understanding between the home team's players was something Real could only dream of, and literally something that money cannot buy. Real's starting XI cost 285 million pounds to assemble, more than three times the cost of Barcelona's side. Instead, of the 14 players Barcelona used in the match, only four -- Dani Alves, Eric Abidal, Seydou Keita and David Villa -- did not spent time in Barcelona's famous youth academy, La Masia, where they were taught how to play the close passing game that has become the club's trademark.

In his postmatch press conference, Guardiola did not single out any individual on the pitch, but instead paid tribute to Johan Cruyff and Charly Rexach, the duo who coached Guardiola in the late 1980s and early 1990s, establishing the total football ideology the club has maintained ever since.

Barcelona, while being one of the biggest sports brands in the world, is also a close-knit, family club. Defender Gerard Piqué's grandfather was once a vice president of Barcelona. Midfielder Sergio Busquets, the son of a former Barcelona goalkeeper, has spoken of the benefits of training for years with your future teammates. "Because so many of them have been around for so long, not only do you fully trust them as players, but they become genuine friends," he told reporters. "That's good for the spirit of the club and creates a great atmosphere in the dressing room."

Maybe such brilliant mutual understanding on the pitch is only possible with this background. The pretender to Barcelona's crown of playing beautiful football is Arsenal, and though the Gunners are some way off at the moment, manager Arsene Wenger is trying to take the same approach by bringing through players from the youth system. "I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art", Wenger has told the English press. "When I watch Barcelona, it is art."

Wenger is trying to go down the Barcelona route of developing players, rather than buying them. The aim, according to Wenger, is "creating a style of play, creating a culture at the club" which will "give us strength that other clubs will not have."

If football continues to place such a big emphasis upon possession, passing and therefore close teamwork, other clubs might find themselves moving toward this model.

Barcelona, though, is still only two points clear of Real, and still has to go to Madrid near the end of the season. Will history repeat itself? In late November 2009, Jose Mourinho took his Inter side to Barcelona's Camp Nou, and the Italian champions found themselves completely outplayed. Barcelona may have won only 2-0, but its dominance was astounding, and Mourinho couldn't hide the difference in quality. By April 2010, however, Mourinho had worked out how to beat Barcelona, and did so over an epic two-legged Champions League semifinal.

Monday's 5-0 defeat was 370 days after Inter's 2-0 loss at Camp Nou, and Mourinho was again magnanimous in defeat. "It is easy for me to take because it is fair," he told reporters after the match. "We played very, very badly and they were fantastic."

But he recalled his defeat from a year ago. "I left here defeated at the start of last season with Inter Milan, and then at the end of the season we were playing in the Champions League final, while they had to watch it on television."

In other words, time to start counting down the days until the return fixture at the Bernabeu in April, when you can bet Real will not be so weak.

Michael Cox is a freelance writer for ESPN.com. He also runs zonalmarking.net.