Last weekend, after Barcelona dropped points to Valencia, manager Xavi lamented the state of his team: "We must be one of the worst teams in Europe in terms of effectiveness." It was the first real negative sentiment shared by the boss this season, who, for most of the campaign, has suggested that his team, currently 4th in La Liga, are simply victims of bad luck.
His more recent pessimistic view seems to be the one closest to reality. The Blaugrana, comfortable Liga winners last year, are all but out of the title race this season, nine points behind league leaders Girona, and falling out of sight of hated rivals Real Madrid.
Things are poor at both ends of the pitch. Barca are conceding too many cheap goals, and not scoring enough good ones. They have dropped points against some of the worst teams in the league, and been handily beaten by the two best. These are not the typical trends of title winning teams.
But there's some complexity here. Barca have not simply lost all of their quality, nor has the rest of the league suddenly become unbeatable. Rather, a combination of factors - some of Barca's making, others out of their control - have seen them fall out of the race for the top spot before Christmas
GOAL takes a look at where it has all gone wrong for the Blaugrana this season...
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