7th December 2016. By Ryan Baldi.
Though they came away with a point and prevented Real Madrid from taking a nine-point lead in the title race, with Sergio Ramos scoring a late equaliser for the away side, Barcelona can be forgiven for feeling deflated after Saturday's 1-1 draw in El Clásico at the Camp Nou.

But, once the dust has settled and time has allowed the Blaugrana to take a wider view of events from the weekend, manager Luis Enrique will be able to take a couple of positives from the game that will serve them well for the rest of the season. Namely the return to form of Sergio Busquets and the return from injury of captain Andrés Iniesta.

Barcelona have been something of an inconsistent beast this season. The usual control they exert over opponents in the midfield area has been conspicuously missing from several performances. In their final league game before the Clásico, they travelled to the Anoeta to take on Real Sociedad and were lucky to come away with a point after being completely outplayed and even enjoyed less possession than their opposition a notion which is unthinkable of an in-form Barça.

Contributing to this lack of central superiority has been the stumbling form of the usually reliable Busquets. The 28-year-old World Cup winner is one of the unsung heroes of the club's immense success in recent years, acting as the metronome at the base of the midfield, conducting play, breaking up attacks and building a platform for the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez to showcase their thrilling attacking talents.

But this season, Busquets has looked a shadow of himself. The man who hardly ever misplaces a pass or is found an inch out of position, has been caught on the ball with alarming regularity and unable to stamp his authority on games as he is able to when on song.

In the Clásico, however Busquets was back to his towering best. It wasn't the most enthralling of high-quality meeting between the two biggest teams in Spain, but, still, the Barça number 5 shone. He was making passes that most players don't even see, let alone execute; he was masterfully spinning away from challenges and nipping opposition attacks in the bud and intercepting as if he'd been tipped off about where exactly every Madrid player intended to play the ball.

Against Los Blancos, Busquets completed 90.1 percent of his passes and 100 percent of his attempted long balls made two successful dribbles and won three free-kicks. The vast majority of the 98,600 fans inside Camp Nou will be hoping that this kind of display will once again become a regular occurrence, because having a prime Busquets back would be a major boost to Barcelona's stumbling title defence.

Iniesta has been absent since suffering a knee ligament injury in Barça's dramatic 3-2 win against Valencia at the Mestalla on 22 October. At the time, it was feared that the Spanish international would be out for up to four months, but his timely return to make a Clásico cameo will have pleased the legion of watching culés.

In much the same way that Busquets' loss of form had impacted Barcelona's ability to take control of midfield battles, Iniesta's absence was perhaps felt even more.

In recent weeks, there has seemed to be a disconnect between the Barça side and its attacking players. Too often, when building attacking moves from the back as is their wont, the ball has not progressed beyond the midfield zone before it is lost and they find themselves on the back foot.

Teams facing Barça learned that if you press the defenders in possession, their passing becomes hurried. With a lack of a midfielder capable of taking the ball under pressure, turning and playing accurate forward passes, their moves break down time and again.

Iniesta is Barça's conduit through whom almost every attack flows. He is the one who receives the ball from the defence and invariably picks out one of the "MSN" front three in the zones in which they can be effective. Without him in the side recently, it is no surprise that Messi has been dropping deeper and deeper in an effort to get hold of the ball.

Introduced in the 59th minute, Iniesta immediately set about wrestling control of the game on Saturday. Despite Busquets' supreme display, Luka Modric was ensuring that the away side were enjoying more than their share of the ball; from the second Iniesta entered the fray, there was an almost audible sigh of relief and normality was restored and Barça were Barça again.

The diminutive midfield maestro completed an incredible 96.3 percent of his passes. Two interception, two key passes and one successful dribble not bad for half an hour's work.

As has been the case for most of Iniesta's period on the sidelines, €55 million summer signing André Gomes was given the chance to start against Madrid. The Portuguese playmaker has yet to truly demonstrate his worth since making the switch from Valencia to the Catalan giants, he again produced an almost anonymous display, making Iniesta's return all the more vital if Barça hope to overturn the European champions' six-point lead at the top of the table.

Though they spent well over €100 million on bolstering their squad options over the summer, it will be a cause of concern for Luis Enrique that his side still evidently remains reliable on their 32-year-old captain. Gomes, Denis Suárez and Rafinha are undoubtedly the future stars of the Barcelona midfield, and it is thoroughly understandable that they are not yet close to the level of Iniesta who, after all, is one of the greatest midfielders of recent times. But the fact that Barça have been so disjointed while he was out is worrying.

Now that Iniesta is back, and Busquets appears to be returning to form, Barcelona will be confident of getting their season back on track. Though they ended up having to settle for a point in the Clásico, things are looking up at the Camp Nou.