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For the fans who just want the facts served straight up to them, Barcelona is now 3 points behind Real Madrid. But saying we're 3 entire points behind our club rival doesn't do FCB justice. The most recent game against Athletic was a fairly even match, and it wasn't because FCB played bad but because Athletic had somehow found an obscure amount of endurance. With the addition of rain, that rivals a tropical monsoon, it made out to be a pretty frantic match. It was uncanny, as if the entire pitch was just one big Slip 'n Slide and the ball just floated on water rather than roll on the grass. Everybody was screaming at someone. But with that amount of rain they might as well have been screaming at no one.
So if I were to sum up that game in 3 words, they would be "Thank. You. Messi." Messi was amazing--which by now is becoming an average for him--but Barca was set to lose the game until he scored in the drawing goal in the twilight of the match. But boy did that goal feel like a winner. I've never appreciated Messi this much since the last time he was amazing at Barca (meaning their previous game before this). He really is half man, half amazing. The way Barca dominated the previous 2 games, along with Messi's consecutive hattricks makes this Athletic game seem like a dip in performance. The bottom line is it's extremely easy to get spoiled by goals to the point where not scoring more than 4 pts above the opposing team, overshadows a great game.
Last match, like Messi, was an anomaly. If we remove the unfortunate weather conditions and Pique's own goal, Barca would've performed amazing. ( And if we further remove Real Madrid's ability to pull out goals galore ever single game, then it's a proven fact Barca is the best.) But the truth is, we can't remove those set backs no matter how insignificant they seem to be. The only thing that'll provide comfort is, well--Messi. He's saved the team once and he'll probably do it again.
As for the team's overall performance this season, they really don't have much correlation. Much of that is due to the fact that this season's line-up isn't as predictable as last season's. Which isn't bad at all since Pep showed Barca can win and dominate without Xavi, it shows that Barca does rest its players (except of course for Messi), and it shows that Barca has even more options to do the 1 thing they do best.
And all this optimism is needed and said for the El Clasico next month. Hopefully Barcelona will find a nice dominating tempo leading up to that match. But if they don't, at least they'll still have Messi.
Until then, Visca Barca.
