Xavi, following in the steps of Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova

La Liga 2022-2023 is clearly Barcelona's, and it is also set to be a historic championship. Xavi Hernández recalled after the Clasico the tremendous amount of points his side have made on Real Madrid in just a few months and says it is very commendable to have 68 points at this stage of the championship.

It has so much merit that since victories have been worth three points, the 1995-1996 season was the first with this system of competition, the current record is the third best in the competition, only surpassed by the 71 points that Barça coached by Pep Guardiola had on matchday 26 in the 2010-2011 campaign (they finished with 96) and the 70 of José Mourinho's Real Madrid in 2011-2012 (the first League someone reached 100 points).

To get an idea of what this tremendous score by Xavi's Barça means, look at the fact that it shares third place all-time with that of the team coached by Tito Vilanova, and later Jordi Roura, in the 2012-2013 season, just a decade ago. That team reached 100 points and will be forever remembered.

It is therefore not a pipe dream to say that Xavi's Barça are on course to reach 100 points at the end of the league, which would be madness given the circumstances. They have dropped just ten points on the road thanks to two defeats (at the Santiago Bernabeu, 3-1, and at Almeria, 1-0) and two draws, both at the Spotify Camp Nou, on the opening day against Rayo Vallecano (0-0) and the derby against Espanyol that closed 2022 (1-1).

To achieve such a feat, Barca must take 32 of the 36 points still to be played. It won't be easy, but it will be an incentive for a team that, who would have thought it, could go straight the books of legends.

For the moment, Barça can already boast having reached a historic milestone. Since the three-point league began, we have already had 27 editions with the current one, the current 12-point difference between the Blaugrana and their pursuers, Real Madrid, is the widest difference between a leader and the second-placed team at this point.

Until now, the record was the 11-point gap between FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid in the 2012-2013 season, the season of the late Tito, and at the end of the league, the gap widened to 15 points over the second-placed team, which ended up being Real Madrid.

And it has always been the case that whenever Barça have had a very good lead at this stage over their pursuers, it has not only been reduced, but increased, as in the previous example and so many others, without going any further, look at the last time Barca won the title, with 'Txingurri' Valverde at the controls, in the 2018-2019 campaign.

The seven-point gap over Atlético on Matchday 26 increased to 11 at the end of La Liga, also over the colchoneros. It has happened in as many as eleven other campaigns (97-98, 98-99, 04-05, 05-06, 08-09, 09-10, 12-13, 14-15, 15-16, 17-18 and 18-19), so it can be almost categorically assured that this Liga will not escape Barça.