Barcelona bounces back to hit Alaves for six

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The opening exchanges at Camp Nou were punctuated by frustrated shouts from home manager Hansi Flick in response to Barcelona's defending, but Alaves found it impossible to live with the hosts' fluid attacking play.

After Pedri's pass sliced through the Alaves midfield, Fermin crossed for Raphinha to open the scoring in the eighth minute.

A brief Alaves reaction put Barca under pressure but once Fermin netted from a tight angle in the 23rd minute, the game was one-way traffic in its favour.

Tenacious and incisive throughout, Fermin assisted Raphinha again in the 41st minute after winning possession back.

Lamine rifled a bouncing ball low into the corner to complete a slick passing move, adding Barcelona's fourth in first-half stoppage-time.

Flick's side continued to look sharp and Karim Adeyemi spurned a chance to round off more excellent work from Fermin early in the second half. Lamine was set up by substitute Gabriel Jesus for his second in the 64th minute.

Rodri was visibly delighted with the weight of his pass behind the Alaves defence, which Gordon converted for Barcelona's sixth with nine minutes remaining.

The Spain midfielder was equally furious with himself after his giveaway allowed Mariano Diaz to add a consolation goal for Alaves three minutes later.

"This is what I want to see after two defeats. How we reacted, it was good and in the right way," Flick said.

Barca showed the verve it was missing in the 2-1 Clasico defeat by visitor Real Madrid last week, after which Flick said his team lacked freshness, and the 4-2 loss at PSG in the UEFA Champions League.

Aston Villa visits Barcelona side on Wednesday (AEDT) for the next UEFA Champions League clash in what is likely to be a sterner test, although Villa will arrive after a frustrating 1-1 draw with Fulham in their Premier League clash this weekend.

Midfielders Brian Farinas and Frenkie de Jong started in defence for Barcelona because of injuries, and Flick did not confirm when Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen or Eric Garcia would return.

"We have to survive these two games [before the international break]. We don't know who is coming back," the German said.

Barcelona tops the LaLiga standings with 30 points, two ahead of Atletico Madrid, which beat Levante 2-0 earlier in the day to sit briefly at the top of the pile.

Alaves is eighth after a seventh game without a win.

Real Madrid can move to within three points of Barcelona should it come away from Racing Santander with a win pon Monday (AEDT), but it will not better its position, with Atletico assured of holding on the second place regardless of that result.