Barca demolish Villarreal with five star performance

Barcelona showed they have lost none of their hunger for success as they responded to Real Madrid’s 6-0 win at the weekend with a 5-0 victory of their own against Villarreal.
The Catalan side are in the hunt for their fourth consecutive league triumph and having started the season by lifting the domestic and European Super Cups they showed no mercy against a Villarreal side who spent the match chasing shadows.
On paper Barcelona appeared to have problems with Carlos Puyol, Gerard Pique and Dani Alves all missing from the defence but coach Pep Guardiola reverted to a 3-4-3 formation made famous by his mentor Johan Cruyff as Barcelona trainer in the early 1990s.
Thiago Alcantara and Cesc Fabregas, both starting the game in the centre of the pitch, scored the first goals after 24 and 44 minutes, while a strike from Giuseppe Rossi that went narrowly wide was all that the visitors could muster.
Alexis Sanchez opened his account for Barca with a goal after the break before a Lionel Messi double completed the scoring.
“We only had one real defender and the idea was that we would play the ball around with a lot of players in the centre,” said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
“Following the Super Cups this was an extraordinary game to start the season and we are very happy. If we had all the players available then maybe I wouldn’t have changed the system.”
Guardiola praised Cesc’s role in the game.
“You always hope that a new signing adapts and Cesc has an advantage as he is from here and knows the players. He also has another advantage and that is that although he is only 23 he was captain of a good team in England and he has a lot of character,” he explained.
Barcelona have shown that they have lost none of their ambition while Real will be fighting for the league again but the question is the competitiveness of the league.
Surely it is not healthy for it to be such a two-horse race where the title is decided by two encounters each season. it has been like this now for several seasons and the simplest answer is to even out the payments for television contracts like other leagues in Europe