“At home, they have the third or fourth best defensive record and it is within touching distance of a European place. At the Lluis Sitjar [Mallorca’s former stadium], it was always difficult to beat them, and at home, it has always been that way since,” said Pep Guardiola, being his usual cautious self in today’s press conference.

“With Webo, N’sue, Chori Castro, it has a strong forward line and a backline made up of players who have been together for a long time, players with a lot of experience such as Marti. Furthermore, it is led by a former Barca player Michel Laudrup, who, as a coach, has never lost against Barcelona. He knows us well and he is a very good coach.”

Considering Mallorca is one of la Liga clubs currently in deep financial difficulties, Pep Guardiola said he “hoped they can fix it” as they are “a classic Spanish football team, and I feel for some of the people there, people who I once shared a dressing room with. I wish them well, each in their own field, Serra Ferrer [Barca coach 2000-01] as their leader, Laudrup and Nadal [Barca 1991-99] as their coaches. Of course it showed they have character. It is when trouble arises that you see what kind of quality managers have, and I give them a lot of credit [for taking the team where they are now].”

Reiterating what Xavi said yesterday, the coach said he is not too concerned about the number of niggling injuries cropping up these past few weeks: “These are situations that all teams go through during a season, and tomorrow will be a good test for them, and I have great faith and confidence they will respond well. We have the obligation to win matches with the players that is available. Everyone here deserves to start, have a responsibility to play for Barcelona and they have to do it well. It is something we must overcome. If one of them is out another will replace him, and if necessary, we can always use our reserve players for situations such as these. I even remember that last season we went to Calderon with Jeffren playing in defense.”

“During these past two years, we have won a lot of titles not only by playing the usual eleven nor are the four, who for various reasons, will be unavailable tomorrow.”

On his team’s hectic schedule these coming weeks, four games in nine or ten days, Guardiola is not a bit perturbed: “I don’t see it as any harder than the one we have in November, December and January, which is the hardest in my opinion. We will have a lot of rest after our Champions League tie against Arsenal, which in December and January, we don’t have.”

Dragged into something that Mourinho have recently said, that the press has been kind to the Barca coach compared to him, Guradiola, in his usual deflective manner when touching subject as this, replied, “That’s because he has more prestige than me as he’s been here [coaching] for a long time. He knows, just as I know, you are only kind to us when we are winning but not when we lose. Every time a team fails to win, the coach gets criticised without analysing [the whole matter]. I know you like me a lot and I’m grateful for that. You treat me well because we have been winning, and that is the reason for that but I’m no different from any other coach in this world, or at least the majority of them.”

“I have no complaints and I try to respect your work. We have been together for some time now, and generally there’s no problem between us, but we’ll see if that stays the same when we start losing.”

On other topics, Guardiola was first asked about Toral and the part his brother played in the boy’s decision to leave: “Those that want to stay here will still be here and we’ll try to look after them, from the very small to those that are already at the top, so they feel at ease being here. But those that want to leave has every right to do so. We wish them luck and hope that they do well.”

“Each of us [he and Pere] tries to do our job as best as we could. I always try to keep my credibility intact, and people who know me know that I have no part to play in this, but I can’t convince others.”

Finally, Guardiola answered a little about 35 years old Pinto’s desire to renew, to which he said, “He’s the quintessential professional. Often [a team’s] performance stem from those that are in and out of the starting line-up. He accepts his role, trains for when he is needed to play, and he is a very important player for us.”

And on Villa’s availability for the match against Valencia on Wednesday due to his court case, replied, “It is what it is. The judge has ruled that he has to go that day, and if he could, he will go directly to Valencia after that. In theory, he could be in Valencia around lunchtime, so I think he might play.”