Sweet fifteen for Barça

Barcelona showed their class in the local derby and proved just why they have not dropped points for a mammoth fifteen games.

The result was never in doubt and despite a brief sniff of a comeback from the city's poorer football club near the end, only a few would have genuinely believed it possible.

A five minute period either side of half time was enough to see off Espanyol, as first Deco opened the scoring just before the break, capitalising on the poor conditions as a rain storm hit the Catalan capital.

The Portuguese midfielder slipped past an Espanyol challenge before letting fly with a 20-yard shot that bounced wickedly just before reaching Cameroon international goalkeeper Carlos Kameni.

The ball skidded off the turf, over Kameni's outstretched hand and into the back of the net.

Barça doubled their lead in just the second minute of the second half, this time Samuel Eto'o getting the better of his international colleague in the Espanyol goal.

Eto'o's strike partner Ronaldinho slipped through a lovely ball, leaving his colleague to do the rest.

The finish was made to look easy by the man who came third in the World Player of the Year votes, and at that point there did not seem to be any coming back for Espanyol.

But the home side made a valiant effort at a fight back, pulling one back through Raul Tamudo on the hour mark.

The Spanish striker neatly dinked the ball over the advancing Victor Valdes having been played onside by Brazilian Juliano Belleti.

That goal sparked a bit of life into a match that was threatening to become a formality for the reigning champions, as both sets of players began to fall foul of the ever deteriorating conditions.

An amazing eight players went into referee Gonzalez Vazquez Benardino's notebook after Espanyol's goal. It was by no means a dirty game, but the more the rain poured down the more scope there was for dangerous sliding tackles.

But despite Espanyol's huffing and puffing, ultimately they could not blown the Barcelona house down.

Frank Rijkaard's machine marches on, and the champions are now five points clear of second placed Osasuna, who play Racing Santander on Sunday.

In a match strewn with errors, two of the goals came from howling mistakes.

The opener came after 24 minutes as Juan Carlos Valeron sent over a teasing cross into the Athletic danger area. It may have been heading directly in - at least Lacruz and Amorebieta thought so - and the pair of Athletic players thought it necessary slide in a, albeit vain, attempt to clear the ball.

All they could manage to do was to deflect the ball into their own goal to give the visitors the lead.

Athletic enjoyed much of the possession, but were rarely able to conjure up any real chances to threaten an equaliser.

But equalise they did, through second half substitute Urzaiz, as he leapt like the proverbial salmon to meet an Etxeberria cross and thunder a header past Molina in the Depor goal.

But seven minutes later, Depor were in front once again, another half time substitute getting his name on the scoresheet.

But it was another defensive error which led to the goal, this time goalkeeper Aranzubia allowing the ball to slip through his legs in comical fashion after Aranzubia had hooked on a cross into a crowded penalty area.

Atheltic did not have what it took to come back from a goal down for a second time, and the Bilbao club remain in 17th, level on points with Real Betis, who occupy one of the relegation places.