With Levante sitting in fourth place in the La Liga table, only five points adrift of Barcelona prior to kick-off, one would have expected a fairly well-contested affair but Pep Guardiola's side were not in the mood to drop any more valuable points in the title race and produced a devastating display of attacking football to run out comprehensive winners.
Following his comical fifth yellow card of the season for time-wasting on Tuesday, defender Gerard Piqué was suspended, allowing him to be available for next week's 'Clásico', meaning that Javier Mascherano slotted in alongside Carles Puyol in the heart of defence whilst Dani Alves was given a breather and Isaac Cuenca was preferred to Pedro and David Villa in attack.
Cesc Fàbregas was another face welcomed into the starting line-up and the Spanish international opened the scoring in just the third minute with a deft finish. Messi's pass was exquisitely flicked by Iniesta into the path of Fàbregas who fired into the bottom left-hand corner from the edge of the 18-yard box.
Arouna Kone nearly became the first opposition player to score at the Camp Nou in the league but his looping header was well held by Victor Valdés. Levante were clearly rattled by the early goal but they were not prepared to sit back and invite Barcelona on to them and their forward trio caused a few defensive problems with their pace and clever movement.
However, Levante were struggling to deal with the industry of Barcelona's frontline and Lionel Messi was twice denied from extending the lead. His first effort came after a dazzling run just inside Levante's half and after evading two defenders, Juan García made a crucial block to divert his shot past the post. Gustavo Munúa was then on hand to deny the Argentine's speculative freekick and Puyol really should have converted the rebound after the ball kindly fell in his path but could not quite sort out his feet.
However, Barcelona did score from a set-piece situation in the 33rd minute when Fàbregas claimed his second of the game. Xavi whipped in an inviting freekick that was glanced in by the head of Fàbregas for his seventh league goal of the season, putting Barça firmly in control of the match.
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