For an hour this was a demolition, cold and clinical, the kind of performance that leaves a league sitting up and taking notice. Barcelona arrived at the Estadi Ciutat de València with a perfect record and left with it burnished, five wins from five, top of La Liga and looking every inch the team to beat. Levante were dismantled early and comprehensively, three goals down before the game had properly caught its breath.

And yet the final act carried a warning. Levante, to their considerable credit, refused to accept the humiliation that seemed scripted for them, dragging two goals back in the closing eleven minutes and briefly turning a stroll into a sweat. Only Karim Adeyemi's strike deep into stoppage time settled the matter, 4-2, and spared Barcelona a nervous ending they had done nothing early on to deserve.

It was a result that flattered no one on the home side and confirmed everything about the visitors' ambition. Barcelona have 21 goals in five matches and have conceded just four; two of those arrived here, in a flurry that will nag at the coaching staff far more than the scoreline suggests it should.

Blitz from the whistle

Barcelona did not wait to announce their intentions. Inside five minutes Raphinha slipped the ball into the centre of the box and Xavi Espart, arriving with intent, drove a right-footed finish into the bottom-left corner. The visitors were ahead before Levante had touched the ball with any purpose, and the pattern of the half was set in that instant.

Fourteen minutes later it was two, and again Raphinha was the architect. His delivery found Lamine Yamal in the heart of the penalty area, and the teenager lashed a left-footed shot high into the middle of the goal. Two assists, two goals, and a home crowd already sinking into their seats. Raphinha's vision and Yamal's finishing made a mockery of the gulf in the table before the interval.

Levante had no answer to the movement and the tempo, no way to disrupt the rhythm being dictated to them. Barcelona passed with the confidence of a side that has not tasted defeat all season, and their front line hunted space with a hunger that Levante's defence simply could not track. By half-time the only question seemed to be the margin.

Yamal turns the screw

Whatever Levante said to themselves at the break was undone within three minutes of the restart. A penalty was awarded, Yamal stepped up, and the outcome was never in doubt. His left-footed spot-kick found the bottom-left corner, a second goal for the youngster and a third for Barcelona, and the contest looked utterly finished at 3-0.

It was a moment of pure authority. Yamal has become the fulcrum of this Barcelona attack, and here he offered the full range of his gifts: the movement to lose his marker for the second goal, the nerve to convert from the spot for the third. At barely an hour played, the visitors were coasting, their perfect start to the campaign never once threatened.

For Levante, the picture was grim. Thirteenth in the table, with five points from their opening five, they had been picked apart by a superior side and looked short of the belief needed to salvage even their pride. What followed, then, was as unexpected as it was spirited.

Levante's late defiance

With eleven minutes remaining, Levante finally found a route back. Iván Romero pounced from very close range, stabbing a right-footed finish into the centre of the goal to make it 3-1 and inject a flicker of life into a stadium that had all but given up. It was scant reward for a chastening afternoon, but it was something.

And then, on 88 minutes, the something became a genuine scare. Roger Brugué swept a right-footed shot into the bottom-left corner following a fast break, and suddenly it was 3-2 with the final minutes and stoppage time still to negotiate. Barcelona, so serene for an hour, were being asked questions they had not anticipated, their concentration wavering just as Levante found their voice.

The home side poured forward in search of a leveller that would have felt like a victory, and for a few dizzying minutes the outcome hung in the balance. Levante had been dead and buried; now they smelled blood. It was the sort of finish that reveals character in a side, even one being comprehensively outplayed for most of the ninety minutes.

Order restored

Barcelona had the composure to end the tension in the most emphatic way. In the third minute of added time, Marc Bernal picked out Adeyemi in the centre of the box, and the substitute drove a right-footed finish into the bottom-left corner. 4-2, and the argument was over. It was a goal that spoke to the depth of this squad, a fresh pair of legs delivering the decisive blow when it mattered most.

The victory keeps Barcelona top of La Liga on 15 points, still without a dropped point, still scoring for fun. Five wins, no draws, no defeats: a statement of intent that few in the division will be able to match over the coming months. The late wobble aside, this was another afternoon of ruthless efficiency from a team playing with the swagger of champions.

For Levante, the reality is sterner. Thirteenth on five points, they remain in the cluster of clubs already fighting to establish themselves, and this defeat leaves their record reading a single win from five. Yet those two late goals offer a thread to cling to, evidence of fight in a group that will need every ounce of it in the weeks ahead. They face the long climb back to the pack; Barcelona simply march on.