New beginnings.

Another season kicked off on Sunday, as Barcelona played host to Real Sociedad. It marked not only a new beginning of a La Liga season, but a number of changes in the club. There was minimal turnover this summer at the player level, as Seydou Keita, Kerrison, and Henrique left the club, but Barca made a splash in the transfer market, bringing in Jordi Alba from Valencia for $14M, and just today putting pen to paper for Alex Song ($19M), the next in a long line of Arsenal players who have come to the Camp Nou in recent years.While Alba has looked fantastic during the preseason and during the 5-1 opening win against RSO, I question the signing of Alex Song. His role is as a defensive midfielder, but he tends to get caught forward far too often, and Arsenal have allowed the most strikes of any top four EPL clubs for the last number of years. I'm not sure if he is meant to replace Keita, or the place of Mascherano who seems to be permanently set to play center back in a regular rotation with long time and more often injured Captain, Carles Puyol, and younger, although in having a bit of a career dip, Gerard Pique. In either case, it appears as if Song was specifically requested by new head coach Tito Vilanova, and is his first attempt to move out from under the long shadow of his predecessor.

The new man in charge, former Guardiola assistant, Tito Vilanova is the biggest change at the club this year. All reports of Vilanova point to the idea that he is even more of a tactician than Pep was, but isn't as experimental with rotations and shape as his predecessor. Tito's regular season debut was a smashing success, with Barcelona running over Real Sociedad 5-1 on Sunday evening. A thumping header by Captain Puyol opened the scoring less than 4 minutes into the game, and set off a flurry of goals with Sociedad equalizing before last seasons Pichichi and Balon D'or winner Leo Messi scored twice in 4 minutes to stretch the lead to 3-1. Long injured David Villa returned after a 8 month layoff, missing the Euros by finishing the scoring near the end of the game, with a fitting tribute to his fans after his goal.

This Barcelona has all the same parts as last years squad, but perhaps it's the sharpness of coming off a summer break, but this team looked deadly. The darting runs were fresh, the tiki-taka sharp, the one-twos turning into three-fours. Tello looks especially sharp on the wing, and is making an early argument for a starting position in a crowded field of forwards. If early indicators mean anything, this team should be the most enjoyable to watch in some time. When Pep walked away in May he felt that perhaps the team was stale, and needed a new spark. Vilanova seems to have provided that spark, but the first real test comes against Real Madrid on Thursday in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup. Madrid looked out of sorts in their draw against Valencia, and will need to be much better to earn their first trophy of the season.