Barça chase 27 points with +29 goal difference
Barça have scored 40 and conceded 11 in 10 games, yet sit 2nd on 27 points after a 1-2 defeat to Real Madrid.
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Nine wins from ten. One defeat. And still second. That is the shape of Barça's season after matchday 10, when Real Madrid left with a 2-1 result on Sunday 25 October.
The numbers underneath are louder than the table. Barça have scored 40 goals and conceded 11, a difference of +29 that no other side in LaLiga comes close to matching. Atleti lead the division on 28 points with a goal difference of +14. Read that again. The leaders are one point better off and twenty-five goals worse off.
At home the record reads 14 wins and 1 loss, with no draws at all. Away it is 10 wins against 4 defeats. A team that does not share points, in either column.
Raphinha has 13 of those 40 goals, the highest individual count in the league. Lamine Yamal adds 8 from the same squad. Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid sits between them on 11.
The response comes quickly: Barça against Alavés on Saturday 31 October, matchday 11 at home. Form reads WWWWL, one defeat at the end of it, so the run of wins has to start again from zero.
Is a plus-+29 goal difference worth more than the point that separates them from Atleti? Not in the standings it isn't. LaLiga awards nothing for style, and 2nd is 2nd however wide the margin. Thirty-eight goals scored in ten matches means nothing if the eleventh match is lost by a single goal, and that is precisely what happened at Barça on Sunday 25 October.
Real Madrid are third on 24, three behind. The gap at the top is narrow. The goal difference is not, and it will not buy a single point.