At least, Xavi managed to return good results for Barcelona this season, because this season will be Xavi last season at Barcelona. Indeed, previously when Girona was still firmly in second place, I also thought that Girona was capable of maintaining second position. But yes, in reality Girona has returned to the quality of their mediocre team so yes, this has caused Girona to get bad results recently even though they only play against teams that are in the bottom zone or in the relegation zone. But regarding Barcelona, even though Barcelona failed to defend the title but yes, if Barcelona can still manage to finish in second place, of course it will still be a good result for Barcelona compared to Atletico, which is really difficult to stabilize and even Atletico is in danger of failing to finish in the top four this season.
I thought Barcelona would be at the first position by now in the La Liga table by now, since the club was the most performing in the last season and even the title holders which make them best fit for that position, Girona was a club that climb up to that position of being second because of the early set backs that Barcelona face during the first few games in the early time of the League.
At this moment Barcelona will have a lot of work today be done in under to be able to climb back to possible first position because Real Madrid who is currently the top club with 72 point against the current Barcelona 64 points which means a lot need to be done to be able to beat the current Real Madrid records.
In their wild dreams, they cannot be the first. No matter if all the work is done in Barcelona, it is impossible for that to happen. Do you think that Barcelona will keep on winning all their rest matches, and Real Madrid will start losing all their matches. Currently, Real Madrid is stronger than Barcelona.
Real Madrid is this season title winners and nothing can change that. Barcelona might still drop points along the line, so I wouldn't believe that they will be able to perform any magic to be the winners of the season. It was last season that Barcelona took advantage of the league, but this season, they were unable to work something out due to their decline in performance close to the middle of the season.