What will concern Barcelona most about Sunday’s 3–1 defeat to Real Madrid is less the result than its nature. Eight games into the league season, this refurbished Barcelona had seemed to be ticking along nicely enough, with seven wins and a draw, but poor recent Champions League results followed by a Clásico defeat has led to a reassessment. And the truth is that Barcelona’s perilous financial position has raised the stakes: In an environment this fraught, any doubts could grow rapidly.
To an extent, this is the bifurcated nature of modern football. For the superclubs, a dreadful season can be finishing third. They exist on a different plane than the rest. They have the resources and the players to overwhelm clubs with less. For them to beat the mid-table and lower-ranking sides in their leagues is a matter of little consequence. What is important is what happens when they come up against the elite.
And the sad truth for Xavi and his new Barcelona is that in every game this season when it has played a top side, it has come up short—and always in the same way. Wins over Elche, Cadiz and Mallorca say little about Barcelona’s qualities. The warning signs came in the away game at Bayern Munich. Barcelona could legitimately say it had had chances through Robert Lewandowski and that it had been blown away in a brief burst just after halftime, but it turned out that game had not been an aberration. Rather, that was the beginning of a pattern.
