Barcelona: No Messi-Villa Rift

Barcelona boss Tito Vilanova and star Lionel Messi have both moved to clarify there’s no rift between the Argentine and David Villa after they were seen arguing during Saturday’s hard-fought 2-0 win over Granada in La Liga.

There were strong verbals shared between Messi and Villa after the Argentine failed to pass the ball to the Spaniard with a golden opportunities with the scores locked at the time.

However, Vilanova insisted the heated incident was a “normality” of football.

“There is nothing to gather (from what happened between Villa and Messi),” he told reporters. “Whoever plays football knows discussions are a normality, and part of the game.

“Such occurrences are common signs that a team is alive. Not exchanging views for betterment would honestly suggest worse.”

Messi later clarified on Barca TV: “Do not look for problems where there are none. Villa and I get along very well, it was just normal banter during games.”

The victory keeps Barca’s perfect league season going, with 15 points from five games, putting the pressure on rivals and champions Real Madrid who have just four points so far and are away to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.