Chelsea F.C. — Best pictures!

With Barcelona’s 1:0 home win over UD Almeria in La Liga yesterday, Lionel Messi (pictured left) and Xavi (pictured right) consolidated their respective leads in the FTBL world and European rankings of midfielders.

Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun, who until recently was among the world’s top players in the FTBL ranking, will need a miracle in order to return in that elite group when the Reds travel to Chelsea on Sunday: he will have a daunting plank of 42.70

As recently as late August, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard still sat at the top of the FTBL World Ranking of midfielders with an overall rating of more than 220 points. Then he initiated a slide that has seen him drop 60 rating points in the last 5 games alone!

Barcelona’s Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pictured) will have a perfect opportunity to return in the top echelon of the FTBL World Ranking of forwards, our most prestigious chart, if he can produce a strong performance when the Catalans host mid-table

As our analysts predicted, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard’s (pictured second from the left) reign at the top of the FTBL ranking of European midfielders was rather brief, as the Blues yesterday struggled to overcome modest APOEL Nicosia (1:0) in the Champions