[4] Pep Guardiola stepped down as head coach at the conclusion of the season, which ended on a high as Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3–0 in the Copa del Rey final at the Vicente Calderón.

[8] On 4 July, defender Andreu Fontàs was promoted to the first team after spending the previous season filling in for an injured Eric Abidal, who had been diagnosed with a liver tumour.

[11] On 3 August, Portuguese club Sporting CP made official the signing of another Barcelona's La Masia graduate, winger Jeffrén, on a five-year deal.

[13] On 14 August, both Barcelona and English club Arsenal announced on their respective official websites an agreement for the transfer of Spanish international midfielder Cesc Fàbregas.

[14][15][16][17][18] On the same day, Barcelona and Real Madrid kicked off the 2011–12 season with a 2–2 draw at the Santiago Bernabéu in the first leg of the 2011 Supercopa de España in front of a full house.

The match ended with several sending offs for a brawl started after Barcelona players deemed a tackle by Marcelo on Cesc Fàbregas to be dangerous play.

[20] Goals from Andrés Iniesta and a brace, including the game winner, by Lionel Messi assured Barça started their season with a trophy by claiming their tenth Supercopa all time.

The AFE and Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) have yet to agree on a guaranteed fund to protect players' wages in the event of their clubs being declared insolvent.

[21] The strike forced Spanish league games scheduled for the weekend of 20 and 21 August, including Barcelona's season opener against Málaga, to be postponed.

On 25 August, Lionel Messi was voted the winner of the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe Award for the 2010–11 season over teammate Xavi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.

The victory gave Barça their fourth UEFA Super Cup trophy all time and saw Fàbregas score his first goal with a Barcelona shirt in the 88th minute.

[24] Barça also lost Alexis Sánchez for approximately 6–8 weeks after the player tore his hamstring in his right leg after a tackle by Sociedad's Dani Estrada.

[32] On 2 October, Barcelona defeated Sporting de Gijón 0–1[33] at El Molinón to take over first place in La Liga's standings for the first time this season.

On 19 October, Barcelona notched its second Champions League victory of the season by defeating Czech side Viktoria Plzeň 2–0 at the Camp Nou.

[38] On 1 November, the 23-men shortlist for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or was released with eight Barcelona—Eric Abidal, Dani Alves, Cesc Fàbregas, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué, David Villa and Xavi.

[39] Later that night, Barcelona defeated Viktoria Plzeň 0–4 in Prague at the Synot Tip Arena with a hat-trick by Messi and assured their progress into the knock-out stage.

[41] On 9 November, the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Copa del Rey was moved up due to Barcelona's involvement in the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup in December.

Real Madrid's forward Karim Benzema scored the fastest goal in Clásico history after getting one past goalkeeper Víctor Valdés off two deflections 24 seconds into the match.

Within 30 minutes, Barça equalized with a strike from Alexis followed by a goal by Fàbregas, making it three years running that their big summer transfers score in the first Clásico of the season.

Strikes from Pedro, Iniesta, Xavi, Thiago, Cristian Tello and Isaac Cuenca sealed what was another superb display of talent and command on the pitch by the Catalans.

[58] On 12 January, Barcelona defeated Osasuna 1–2[59] at the Reyno de Navarra to move on to the Copa del Rey quarter-finals where they'll meet Real Madrid for another round of Clásicos.

[65] On 22 January, the postponed Week 1 match against Málaga due to the player's strike was played at La Rosadela with Barça taking a 1–4 victory.

On 25 January, Barcelona eliminated Real Madrid from the Copa del Rey with a 2–2[67] draw at Camp Nou to win the tie 4–3 on aggregate and reached their 50th semi-final all time in the competition.

[72] On 14 February, Barcelona defeated Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena with a 3–1 win in their Champions League first leg encounter to move closer to qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Messi took his career tally to 234 goals as a Barcelona player and surpassed César as the all-time top scorer for the club in competitive matches.

[94] On 21 April, Barcelona lost their second game in row after being defeated at Camp Nou by fierce rival Real Madrid with a scoreline of 1–2 in El Clásico.

Sergio Busquets and Andrés Iniesta put Barcelona up 2–0 by the 44th minute as the Spanish club again dominated possession from the start, owning 73% for the game.

But Ramires lobbed a shot right before half-time giving the advantage back to his team on aggregate, and the Spanish giants never found a way to recover after the break.

After Lionel Messi blasted a penalty off the crossbar in the 59th minute and came close once again with another, Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech making a diving effort to slightly alter the ball's path to the post.

Substitute Fernando Torres dribbled round Víctor Valdés to score in added time to make it 2–3 on aggregate and sealed Barcelona's elimination from Europe.