Barcelona has won two consecutive La Liga games for the first time this season, thanks to a hard-fought 3-1 win over Villarreal. Barça played their worst game under Xavi, leaving it late, but scoring two goals in the final six minutes to escape El Madrigal with three vital points.

At the Madrigal, the first ten minutes were wild, with Dani Parejo nearly breaking Sergio Busquets' ankle in the first minute and not even receiving a yellow card, Ez Abde having a header magnificently saved by Gerónimo Rulli onto the crossbar, Gerard Piqué saving a shot by Arnaut Danjuma with his hand and not being considered for a penalty, and both Memphis Depay and Gavi missing clear scoring opportunities.

Barça dominated the next ten minutes with some excellent offensive football, creating a huge opportunity when Frenkie De Jong played a fantastic through ball to put Memphis one-on-one with the keeper, but Depay somehow missed the target completely. In the first 20 minutes, Barça had nearly 80% possession and appeared to be in command for the remainder of the half.

Unai Emery's team, on the other hand, grew into the game and began exploiting a clear weakness in Barça's defense: the young Ez Abde on the right-wing and Eric Garcia at right back. Alfonso Pedraza became the deadliest player in the game when he kept persistently losing Ez Abde and running into the free space made by García.

Villarreal created numerous chances in this manner, two of which fell to Danjuma, who was unable to beat Marc-André ter Stegen in goal. The Yellow Submarine won the first half, and Barça was on the ropes at halftime, with Xavi needing to make major improvements to avoid disaster in the second half.

Barça altered the game in the second half with an early goal. Memphis' shot was saved by Rulli after a cross from Jordi Alba on the left, but De Jong scored on the rebound into an empty net, and Barça pulled ahead just five minutes into the second half.

After falling behind, Villarreal increased their pressure, and Barça completely lost its form. The Blaugrana struggled to keep possession, and their defense became increasingly unorganized, and they paid the price when Manu Trigueros played a ball over the top, Danjuma intercepted it before Piqué, and Samuel Chukwueze then anticipated Oscar Mingueza and scored the equalizer.

In the final 15 minutes, the home team continued to dominate and had several excellent chances to score, but instead, the visitors somehow managed to score the winner. Memphis Depay won the ball before the Villarreal defense, rounded the keeper, and nutmegged the center back at the line to give Barça the advantage after a long ball by Ter Stegen was not properly cleared by Pervis Estupián.

There was still time for Villarreal to score a leveler, but Philippe Coutinho won a penalty and ended up scoring from the spot to make it 3-1 for Barça. With this, Barça had won two games in a row for the first time this season in the league.

This was by far the worst performance of the week. Barça was extremely fortunate to win this game, but Ronald Koeman's side had never won a game like this before. Xavi's luck may be on his side, but he still has a lot of work to do.