There are afternoons when a title favourite simply flexes, and this was one of them. Barcelona came to the Mestalla, took what they wanted and left with a 5-0 win that flattered no one but the beaten. From the sixth minute, when Lamine Yamal curled the ball home from a difficult angle, this had the unmistakable feel of a mismatch dressed up as a fixture.

Valencia, already labouring near the bottom of the division, had no answer to the speed of thought and precision of touch in front of them. Barcelona did not so much break them down as breeze past them, threading passes and finding runners as though the home defence were traffic cones. By full time the scoreboard read like a statement of intent, and the noise inside the Mestalla had long since drained away.

This was the sort of performance that sends a message to every rival watching. Four wins from four, seventeen goals scored and only two conceded — Barcelona are not merely leading La Liga, they are setting the terms of it. For Valencia, the afternoon confirmed fears that have been building since the first whistle of the season.

Yamal sets the tone

It took Barcelona only six minutes to expose the gulf. Fermín López slid the ball to Lamine Yamal on the right, and the teenager, working from an angle that offered little, whipped a left-footed shot into the high centre of the net. It was a finish of audacity, the kind that turns a difficult chance into an inevitable one.

The lead never felt like the beginning of a contest so much as the removal of any doubt. Valencia pressed forward in fits, but the visitors soaked up whatever came and struck again on 22 minutes. This time it was Anthony Gordon supplying the pass, and Fermín López obliging with a composed left-footed strike from the centre of the box into the bottom-left corner.

Two goals down inside 25 minutes, Valencia looked every inch a side sitting 20th with a single point to their name. The passing patterns from Barcelona were relentless, each move seemingly one step ahead of a home team chasing shadows. There was cruelty in the ease of it, the sense that Barcelona were dictating not just the score but the tempo of the entire afternoon.

The rout deepens

Whatever Valencia said to themselves at the interval evaporated within five minutes of the restart. A fast break carved the home side open, Fermín López slipped in Raphinha, and the winger tucked away a left-footed finish from very close range into the centre of the goal. Three-nil, and the contest, such as it had been, was over.

Fermín López's afternoon deserves its own paragraph. A goal and two assists from one midfielder tells the story of a player operating on a different frequency to those around him, pulling strings and finding space that Valencia could not close. Barcelona's midfield hummed with intent, every touch purposeful, every pass sharpened toward the same end.

From there it became an exhibition. Barcelona kept probing, kept moving, and Valencia could only try to limit the damage. The margin was already emphatic, but the visitors showed no appetite for restraint, no inclination to ease off a side already broken.

Late flourish

The substitutes only widened the gap. Dani Olmo, freshly introduced to the action, turned provider twice in the closing stretch. On 79 minutes his pass found Pedri in the centre of the box, and the midfielder steered a right-footed shot into the bottom-left corner to make it four.

Five minutes later the pair combined again, Olmo threading a through ball for Lamine Yamal, who finished with his left foot into the bottom-right corner. The goal was awarded only after a VAR review, a brief pause before the fifth was confirmed, and with it Yamal claimed the brace his afternoon merited.

That final flourish underlined the depth Barcelona can call upon. Olmo arriving from the bench to shape two goals speaks to a squad brimming with match-winners, capable of extending a lead when the game is already won. Valencia, by contrast, were reduced to spectators in their own stadium, watching a procession they could neither slow nor stop.

What it means

For Barcelona, this was another line in a season that is beginning to look ominous for everyone else. Perfect from four matches, top of La Liga on twelve points, and now with seventeen goals scored to just two conceded, they are combining ruthlessness in attack with miserliness at the back. The names on the scoresheet — Yamal twice, Fermín López, Raphinha, Pedri — read like a roll call of a team peaking early and enjoying it.

Valencia's plight, meanwhile, grows starker by the week. Twentieth in the table with a single point from four games, one goal scored and nine conceded, they are already staring at a fight to escape the drop. This was the sort of defeat that lingers, not because of any single error but because of the comprehensive nature of it. There was nowhere to hide and little to build on.

The gap between these two clubs, once measured in trophies and history, now feels measured in something more immediate and unforgiving. One side is soaring, the other sinking, and the Mestalla offered ninety minutes of unfiltered proof.

Barcelona move on with their momentum untouched, the rest of the division left to wonder how anyone catches them. Valencia must regroup quickly, because the season is young but the warning signs are already flashing red. On this evidence, survival will demand a transformation that felt very far away on Sunday afternoon.