Barcelona turn on the style and go three points clear

MADRID - Barcelona recovered their habitual majesty and thrashed hapless Zaragoza 6-1 to go three points clear at the top of La Liga.

Seydou Keita scored his first hat-trick in Spain, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two and Lionel Messi one, as Barca Sunday confirmed their status as the most elegant and effective team in the world.

“Our recent performances,” said Barca captain Cerles Puyol, “have not been great, so we needed to win and play well tonight.”

Indeed they did, turning in their best performance of a season which promises to be just as exuberant and gratifying as the previous one.

Keita headed Barca ahead in the 25th minute, on a clever centre from Messi. Five minutes later Ibrahimovic made it 2-0 with a powerful free-kick which Zaragoza keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo made a mess of.

Three minutes before half-time Ibrahimovic set up Keita for the third goal. The African returned the compliment in the 57th minute, centering for the Swede to make it 4-0 at the near post.

Jorge Lopez pulled back a consolation goal for Zaragoza, but Messi was determined to score his first goal for a month - and he did so with an exquisite chip.

Keita completed the rout, and his hat-trick, by heading in a late corner.

Zaragoza’s Angel Lafita said that “when a team plays as well as they did tonight, all you can do is applaud them really.”

Barca are now three points ahead of injury-plagued Real Madrid, who were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw in Gijon Saturday.

Real are three points ahead of third-placed Sevilla, who could only draw 0-0 on Saturday at home to Espanyol.

One point behind Sevilla, in joint fourth place, are Valencia and Deportivo Coruna.

Earlier Sunday, Valencia scored an impressive 3-0 win away to Almeria, with second-half goals from Spain strikers David Villa, Pablo Hernandez and Juan Mata.

As expected, Valencia soaked up the Almeria pressure used their pace to hit the tiring hosts on the break in the second half.

In the 54th minute Pablo escaped down the left and centred for Villa to make it 1-0 with a precise header. Villa is league top scorer with seven goals.

Things went from bad to worse for Almeria 10 minutes later, when goalkeeper Diego Alves was sent off for handling outside his area. And in the 74th minute Pablo made it 2-0 with an audacious long-range lob.

Mata completed the rout three minutes from time after taking a pass from veteran Ruben Baraja.

“We needed to win today,” said a delighted Pablo, “in order to stay close to the top, and I always thought that we would do so.”

Valencia now have 15 points from eight games, the same as Deportivo, who crashed 4-0 in Valladolid earlier Sunday.

Valladolid’s hero against Deportivo was the promising Nauzet Aleman, who scored the first two goals.

Valladolid’s other goals were handsome late strikes from Diego Costa and Haris Medunjanin.

“They were far superior to us today,” said Deportivo veteran Juan Carlos Valeron.

“We were ponderous in attack,” the 2002 World Cup playmaker said, “and hesitant in defence.”

Villarreal, meanwhile, moved off the bottom of the table with their first win, 2-1 at home to Malaga, with goals from Brazilian Nilmar - his first in Spain - and Joan Capdevila.

Malaga are now bottom with just four points. Then, on five, come Xerez, who lost 1-0 away to Tenerife. Then come Villarreal on six and troubled Atletico Madrid - who were held 1-1 by Mallorca Saturday - on seven.

Also on seven are Racing Santander, who battled out a late 1-1 draw at home to Osasuna.

Sunday’s other early game was a 2-0 home win for Getafe over Athletic Bilbao, on goals from Real Madrid rejects Roberto Soldado and Dani Parejo.