Manchester United and Barcelona Show That Money Talks Barcelona rolled over Celta Vigo to set another club record 10 games into the Spanish league season. Both leaders did make life at the top look less competitive than it ought to have been. And both kept plenty of energy in their tanks before Champions League journeys to come this week. However, as a contest, neither set the pulses racing or pushed the players to their limits anything like the 10 p.m. kickoff between Valencia and Atlético Madrid. It was billed as a shootout at the famous old Mestalla stadium between two modern strikers - Valencia's Roberto Soldado and Atlético's Radamel Falcao. The big clubs of the world - Chelsea, Manchester City, even Real Madrid - are watching and waiting and preparing their bids for Falcao, a Colombian, next January. Before Saturday, he had scored in 11 consecutive matches. But it is the way that he scores - with predatory sharpness, elusive movement, and brave athletic ability - that makes him so coveted. Atlético says it will not sell Falcao as it had to sell Fernando Torres, Sergio Agüero and Diego Forlán over the years. But there will be a price on Falcao's head that the club, living in the financial shadows of Real Madrid, may not be able to turn down. Apart from Barcelona and Real, which enjoy television riches separate from the rest of the soccer clubs in Spain, there is always a price that tempts and tears away the finest players. Valencia, which is still trying to build a new stadium, and still recovering from the staggering cost of that construction, has similarly had to let go of David Villa, Juan Mata and David Silva, among others. The question is not how much poorer the clubs can become, but how much of a compelling spectacle they can create to compete with the dominant teams in their land. Falcao, this time, did not get a goal. He tried all his cunning. He was manhandled by Valencia's big defenders, rugby-tackled to the turf twice without being awarded a penalty. His forehead was cut when Soldado inadvertently stepped on him in the goal mouth. But Falcao got up, and was patched up with a fetching pink head bandage, and he kept going to the bitter end. It was bitter, because Atlético lost a game for the first time since last April. Feisty in the manner of its Argentine coach, Diego Simeone, the team met its match against a team fired up to fight tackle for tackle, foul for foul. As the yellow cards were racked up, Valencia's coach, Mauricio Pellegrino, and later his assistant coach were ordered to the stands for arguing from the sidelines. One player, Soldado, kept his head in the mayhem. There is a saying that Spain plays without a No. 9, a recognized central striker, because there is no No. 9 in the country any more. Soldado is an old-fashioned front-runner, fired up by having Falcao on his field. On 20 minutes, Soldado scored a classic center-forward's goal. He watched a long pass from Valencia's French defender, Adil Rami, float over his right shoulder, then, perfectly balanced and with only one thought in his mind, Soldado struck a volley from an angle to the right of goal. Its timing, direction and force gave the goalie, Thibaut Courtois, who is 6-foot-5, or about 2 meters, tall, no hope of reaching it. Try as Atlético did to find Valencia's breaking point, the home side refused to yield, and in the last moments, Nelson Valdez, Valencia's Paraguayan substitute, made it 2-0. Despite that loss, Atlético remains second in the table behind Barcelona, which beat Celta Vigo, 3-1. Real Madrid is third after crushing Zaragoza, 4-0. Those routine victories were unusual only in that neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo were among the scorers. In England, Robin van Persie did exactly what was expected. Van Persie was imported to the Premier League by Arsenal and spent eight years there before demanding a move last summer. He turned down Manchester City to join United.