this might sound biased because im brazilian, but i think neymar has been barcelona's best player this season. not only he is their top scorer, today he might have been the best barcelona player. rarely lost the ball, made good runs, created some chances and was clinical on its first goal chance (unlike messi!), though real madrid's (incredible) defense eventually outlasted him. i understand messi is still the more proven player and without him neymar wouldn't have like 2/3 of his goals, but i hope people will fathom the true potential of neymar now instead of thinking he's just an overrated brazilian choker. definitely a potential best of the world.
as for madrid, god damn. their counter attack is INSANE, and they aren't even using bale. but they are also very tatically diverse, being able to play really well on and off the ball. i thought real madrid actually weakened itself on the transfer window, because of my skeptcism towards kroos and james. i thought the first was just a normal german cm, but god this guy's both short and long passing is legendary, i think he's only behind pirlo in vision/passing; his cross to pepe... holy shit. as for james, i only saw him as a potentially good player in the future, much like, say, lucas and thought he had a lucky world cup and was being even more questionable after his first games in la liga, but i was incredibly wrong. james is already indeed a proven world class player with his flair, ball control and playmaking.
as for chelsea, i hope they win but this will a tough game. even though man utd are still in a rebuilding proccess they're very strong at home and chelsea won't have diego costa and remy, and drogba, though a top scorer in derbies, has a very advanced age and might not be able to play the full game. im predicting a 2-2 draw