There was a party atmosphere at the Nou Camp before the game as Barca showed off the six trophies won in 2009 to their fans.

But, just as last year when Villarreal came and drew 3-3 here when Barca needed a win to clinch the title, the Yellow Submarine proved to be the party poopers once more as they held the Catalans to a 1-1 tie.

The result means Real Madrid can join Barca on 40 points at the Primera Division summit with a win over Osasuna tomorrow.

But Guardiola was unmoved.

"It is a lesson for the future - it will make us stronger and make us realise that everything is difficult," he said after the match.

The Barca coach believes his side were unlucky to face such a big team straight after the winter break.

"It was a very hard game and to come back from holiday and have to face one of the big clubs, Villarreal, makes it even more complicated.

"We knew the difficulty of it, but now we have to recover in exactly the same way as if we had won or lost," he said.

Barca had a perfect record at home in the league prior to this game, but struggled to impose themselves on the game without the absent Lionel Messi.

Yaya Toure and Seydou Keita were also missing, while Andres Iniesta was not deemed fit enough to start.

In the absence of all of those players in midfield, Jonathan Dos Santos - brother of Tottenham's Giovani - made his first league start.

And Guardiola was happy with the Mexican's performance.

"He did well, moved around well and played the ball with class in what was a very difficult game," he said.

The Barca coach also claimed to be satisfied with the rest of his players.

"I have nothing to reproach," he said.

Bojan Krkic came on late in the game as the Catalans looked for a winner.

Guardiola admitted he could have introduced the youngster sooner.

"Maybe I should have put Bojan on earlier," he said.

Guardiola also had some words of warning for striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was booked for a nasty lunge on Javi Venta with two minutes left and is now suspended for next week's visit to Tenerife.

"He is temperamental, but he has to be careful because some day he could leave us with 10 men on the pitch," he said.

Barca president Joan Laporta also declared himself happy with the team, despite their failure to win the match.

"The team played a good match and either side could have won," he said.

Laporta insists there is no reason for alarm, even if Madrid go top tomorrow.

"We'll see what happens tomorrow, but there is a long way to go," he said.

Meanwhile, Villarreal coach Ernesto Valverde was delighted with his side's performance.

"I'm satisfied - we played against the best team in the world and we could even have won in the end," he said.

Valverde, who led Espanyol to consecutive draws at the Nou Camp in his two years in charge of Barca's city rivals, said Messi's absence made no difference to the outcome of the game.

"It wouldn't have changed too much," he said.