1) Rayo try to fight the powers-that-be as Barca come to town 

Lest we all want embrace the ways of collective farming, shared deodorant sticks, and having the same haircut as The Dear Leader, the cream will always rise to the top in whatever walk-of-life in the world. But everyone else should have a fighting chance, at least, to be the plucky, puppy-power Scrappy-Do against The Man. That Barcelona are light years ahead of Rayo Vallecano, Thursday's opponents in La Primera, is clear.

The Catalan club have put 18 goals past the Madrid outfit in the past four visits to the Spanish capital. But that's the result of Barcelona being handed $150 million a year in money from TV deals, compared to around $19 million for Rayo, on top of all the other sponsorship deals and shirt sales the league champions hoover up. The set-up in La Liga is like deploying a small nuke over your backyard to remove some weeds. It's easy to samba your way to titles when you are sleeping on beds of cash. Rayo's stadium only has three sides and someone lives in an apartment above the main entrance. 

It's the same situation for Real Madrid, who overcame some 'first world problems' to defeat lowly Levante whose forward on Wednesday, Deyverson, cost $2 million last summer, a huge sum for the Valencia outfit, and probably Madrid's budget for their canteen vending machines for the year. Still, goals are goals are goals, and you can see if Rayo can stand up for the little guy against Barca from 2.55PM ET and catch all the highlights of the rest of the action in La Liga on the XTRA at 10PM ET. Power to the people!

2) More misery for Arsenal fans as Pep rumored to have favored odyssey at the Emirates

Sports Burst readers may vaguely remember Piers Morgan. Chippy English bloke that ended up on CNN in the US of A for a bit, somehow. He's also a very opinionated Arsenal fan and is claiming that Pep Guardiola's real desire was to take over at the Emirates this summer, rather than go to Manchester City, with Thierry Henry as his number two. If that's true, then Gunners fans are going to be even chirpier this morning, after yesterday's lame home defeat to Swansea that all but ended the EPL team's title chances.

3) Chelsea owner tells players that Conte is new coach for campaign to come

The Chelsea players are apparently very good at keeping secrets. The Stamford Bridge owner, Roman Abramovic, has reportedly already told the players, with caviar in one hand and some Veuve in the other, that current Italian boss, Antonio Conte, is the manager for the season to come. That's what the Italian press are declaring on Thursday, anyway. No word on whether Guus Hiddink was standing next to him saying "er...I'm still in the room."

4) Gerrard laments MLS toughness as new season approaches 

The return of the MLS season is upon us. And one of the big questions is whether some the veteran super stars of LA Galaxy can get their act together and regain the MLS Cup. The signs are not good so far with Steven Gerrard admitting that he was rather surprised by how tough life was in the world of soccer. Matters aren't so hot for the Galaxy south of the border either with the team crashing out of the CONCACAF Champions League during the week, after a 4-0 aggregate loss to Santos Laguna.

5) Refugee team set to take pride of place at Rio Olympics 

Time for something cheery to end the day after a lot of grumpy moaning from Sports Burst. The Olympics Games in Rio is set to have an extra team competing - a team of refugee athletes that will compete under the Olympic flag. And the Diamond League is set to have its first meet in Africa with Rabat, Morroco taking its place on the calendar. Remember you can watch the globe's finest track and field stars light years ahead of the Olympics, exclusively on beIN SPORTS.