Barcelona's Lionel Messi from Argentina, gestures during a Spanish La Liga soccer match

Barcelona's Lionel Messi from Argentina, gestures during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between RC Celta and FC Barcelona, at the Balaídos stadium in Vigo, Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Lalo R. Villar)

It had been seven months and two days since Barcelona had lost a league game, a run of 18 undefeated matches in which Barca failed to win just twice, stretching back to Matchday 24 of last season.
It had been even longer since an opponent looked as comfortable against the Catalan juggernaut in a league game as Celta de Vigo did on Wednesday, in its comfortable 4-1 home win, courtesy of a splendid Nolito goal, a brace from Iago Aspas and a John Guidetti score that were answered only by Neymar's tally.
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It had even been seven years and four months since Barca had lost a La Liga game by three goals, according to ESPN Stats & Info. And that was against Real Madrid, not a small, provincial club like Celta.
With Real Madrid beating Athletic Bilbao 2-1 in a game that kicked off later, the loss dumped Barca from second place to fourth through five rounds of play. Villarreal's 1-0 win at Malaga sent Barca tumbling to fifth place.
There are 33 games left to play, of course, leaving plenty of time for Barcelona to set things right. The Spanish press is famous for manufacturing crises around its two giant clubs. This isn't one of them. Not yet. This game felt like an aberration, a weird misaligning of the planets turning an all-time great team into the Washington Generals for a night.

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