Barca fell behind 23 minutes into a contest it dominated but in which its best football was rarely on show against the league's bottom club.

Thankfully for Ernesto Valverde, Luis Suarez was at his lethal best, instinctively making it 1-1 shortly before he brilliantly teed up Arturo Vidal for Barcelona's second.

But after De Jong was shown a second yellow card, Espanyol ramped up the pressure and Wu clinched a precious point for LaLiga's bottom club as he became the first Chinese player to score against Barca in a competitive game.

The result leaves the defending champion level on points with Real Madrid at the top of the table at the midway point of the season, after Los Blancos thrashed Getafe earlier in the day.