LONDON — For a Catalan, it gets no better than this. The penultimate weekend of the soccer year, and not one, but two rivals from Madrid fly the white flag in surrender to the power, the beauty, and the spirit that makes Barcelona the best.

Barça gave Atlético Madrid a goal lead, but then overwhelmed the second-place team in La Liga in a 4-1 victory on Sunday. That prompted Atlético coach Diego Simeone to say: “We brought out our best weapons, but Barcelona is playing at a different level. They are in a different league to the rest of us.”

And from the Bernabéu — where Catalonia’s second team, Espanyol, held Real Madrid, 2-2 — came a plaintive cry by Real’s coach, José Mourinho. “It’s too much,” Mourinho said. “I have never known a situation like this, losing so many points and having a team so far from its objectives.”

Mourinho was triumphal back in May when his team took the title in La Liga. Today, 13 points adrift before Christmas, the coach realizes that Barça had not so much ceded the crown as let Madrid borrow it for a season.