Despite Villarreal having traditionally been a tough nut for Barcelona to crack, Luis Enrique has in fact led his team to three victories in as many matches against them this season. Sure, past results count for very little in modern football, but having won both league matches will surely give the Blaugranas a slight mental edge which could prove crucial in decisive moments.
Fortunately, Barca are back on track, having recovered some of the momentum they lost when they were shockingly defeated by Malaga with a couple of away wins in the last week (1-2 in Manchester against City and 1-3 in Granada). While Cules are well-known for their insanely high levels of expectation, nobody can deny that having 13 victories in the last 14 matches is impressive by anyone's standards.
Still, the manager must ensure his players don't make the mistake of taking their foot off the accelerator again, especially when facing theoretically inferior teams. As teams like Celta Vigo, Real Sociedad or Granada have already proved this season, Barca are beatable by aggressive, well-organised teams if they are not fully focused on the job at hand. Such dangerous tendencies have also been visible in the last two games, unfortunately.
The performance in the Champions League against City was spectacular during the first half. Barca controlled the pace of the game, looked mighty fast in possession and used their firepower upfront to make the most out of the chances they created before the break. Having said that, the current British champions bounced back in the second half and asked many more questions off the Catalans' back-line, who looked less focused and far from comfortable until the final whistle. The final 2-1 victory, while obviously a positive result, should have been much better.
Those who didn't watch Barca's 3-1 away victory at Granada on Saturday may think that Luis Enrique's men found it easy to walk away with the three points. Nothing further from the truth: If the Blaugranas managed to obtain a positive result at Los Carmenes it was more thanks to the individual performances from Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez than a decisive, collective effort.
Luis Enrique and Barcelona have shown vulnerability at times against aggressive, well-organised clubs.
Passing was sloppy, transitions were sluggish at best. Xavi failed to speed the game up enough to keep rival defenders guessing. Neymar had a more than discreet game, becoming less and less involved as the game developed. Marc Bartra gave away a clumsy penalty as a result of inexperience and lack of regular playing time. The list of points to improve goes on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea: Barca were far from their best once again.
However ugly it may have been, however, Luis Enrique seemed more than happy to grab the three points and move on. While he defended his team in front of the media, the Asturian surely identified gaps in his team's performance and has been working tirelessly in training to make things right.
Lucho does get a fair degree of criticism but, to be fair, he has implemented changes to make the team less predictable, less speculative and far more dynamic. Sure, those beautiful passing transitions across midfield under Pep Guardiola attracted world-wide admiration, but rivals soon found an antidote and therefore became less and less effective as years went by. The current evolution was definitely needed.
The current Barca has an admirable number of highly-skilled team players who aren't afraid to roll their sleeves up and put in a shift for the overall benefit of the team. Such a determined collective attitude is also apparent from key players such as Andres Iniesta, Neymar or even Lionel Messi, who have understood the importance of leading by example when it comes to defensive pressing.
Luis Enrique's team know how to win ugly. The fighting spirit that Luis Suarez, Javier Mascherano, Jordi Alba, Rakitic and the much-improved Gerard Pique bring on a weekly basis makes them a much harder nut to crack, a far more difficult rival to face even in make-or-break situations.
The attacking trident formed by Messi, Suarez and Neymar is getting stronger by the minute thanks to the continued playing time they are enjoying together. The combined 72 goals scored so far this season truly speak for themselves. While scheduled rest should be given whenever possible to minimise accumulated fatigue in coming months, it is clear the "The Three Amigos" should be included in the starting line-up in the Copa semifinals.
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