Actually, Barcelona has not convinced much at all this season. They are in the lead, but that is mainly because Real Madrid has missed a lot of points. Look at the results of Barcelona, that is really a lot of meager victory. Often 1-0 results, few goals against but also very few scored. They can, however, fully focus on the competition, since they are no longer active in Europe due to the elimination at United. I don't know if that is an advantage. Somehow Real Madrid always do much better in European tournaments, but in the competition they are not much different. Last season, Barcelona didn't even come close to Real Madrid, now it seems to be the complete opposite.
Barcelona has had a very different appearance this season when compared to last season so that Barcelona has managed to show the difference through the results of the matches it has had this season in La Liga. Meanwhile, for other competitions such as the UCL and UEL, Barcelona has still not succeeded because maybe the opponents they got were far better than Barcelona.
But for Real Madrid, which last season managed to get a trophy in La Liga and UCL, it has shown a slightly worse performance this season in La Liga, although it is still quite good in UCL. Even so, Barcelona still has to stay focused on La Liga in order to continue to be at the top of the standings because Real Madrid is still trying to get close to it in the remaining La Liga matches this season.