A brace from Luis Suarez helped power a rotated Barcelona to a 5-0 victory over Las Palmas on Saturday afternoon at the Camp Nou.
Joining the Uruguayan on the scoresheet was Lionel Messi, Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal, as a Barcelona thoroughly dominated the visitors from the Canary Islands.
After their inauspicious start to 2017, it appears that Barcelona have kicked things into gear with Saturday's offensive performance serving as evidence. The scoreline could have been much more lopsided had Barcelona not failed to finish a number of guilt-edged chances mostly coming in the first half.
Still, a three-goal spurt in six minutes early in the second half was Barcelona at their best and should serve notice to the rest of La Liga that the reigning league champions are very much in the mix for the title.
Luis Enrique made several changes to the team that triumphed in the Copa del Rey over Athletic Bilbao in midweek. Neymar was a surprise omission in attack, ceding his place to Turan, while Aleix Vidal enjoyed his first league start at right-back in four months ahead of the rested Sergi Roberto. There was also a return for centre-back Samuel Umtiti, who replaced the rested Gerard Pique and lastly midfielder Andres Iniesta started on the bench with Rafinha getting the nod.
It took a few minutes for Barcelona to fully wake up from their afternoon siesta but once they did, their attack started rolling, beginning with a Suarez goal at the quarter-hour mark. Vidal filtered a ball to Andre Gomes down the right, and from the end-line the former Portuguese played a diagonal pass back to Suarez who easily slotted home past Las Palmas goalkeeper Javi Varas for a 1-0 lead.
Apart from forward Kevin-Prince Boateng, Las Palmas were mostly pegged back in their own area, left to defend against a Barcelona attack that was clearly on-song. Still, the Pio Pio were keen to play their possession football as well, and certainly gave the Barcelona defence something to think about when moving forward.
If there was one player who stood out in the first 45 minutes, it was Varas. In what will surely be something he'll recount to his grandchildren someday, the Las Palmas No. 1 stopped Messi twice in a span of three minutes to end the half. First he soared to his left to tip the Argentine's free kick over the bar; then he stopped Messi one-on-one with a brilliant kick save.
For all of his big stops in the first half though, Varas' work was undone by an error early in the second half. The visiting stopper was unable to hold onto a Rafinha cross from the left and the ball fell right to Messi, who slammed in from a few yards out to extend the Barcelona lead to 2-0.
With the two-goal cushion, Barcelona looked to open things up even more and minutes after the Messi goal, Suarez added his second with a sharp right-footer from the tip of the area to make it 3-0 to the hosts.
Las Palmas were cooked and Barcelona knew it. Again Suarez was the danger man and should have converted his hat trick if not for a save from Varas. However, the rebound went to Turan who swept into net and in the span of eight minutes the Barcelona lead had gone from 1-0 to 4-0.
The burst of goals from Barcelona turned the final 30 minutes into a training session essentially, with Barcelona content to bat the ball around and patiently wait to find the perfect pass to set up a scoring chance. That opportunity would come 10 minutes from time when substitute Paco Alcacer set up Vidal, who swept into goal to complete the 5-0 scoreline.
Barcelona return to action on Thursday in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals with a visit to Anoeta to face Real Sociedad.

- Match Sheet:

5.- FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Aleix Vidal, Mascherano, Umtiti, Jordi Alba; Busquets (Mathieu, min. 73), Rafinha, André Gomes (Rakitic, min. 62); Messi, Suárez (Alcacer, min. 68), Arda Turan.

0.- Las Palmas: Javi Varas; Michel, David García (Aythami, min. 33), Lemos, Hélder; Roque Mesa, Vicente (Mateo Garcia, min. 61), Viera, Tana; El Zhar (Livaja, min. 74), Boateng.

Goals: 1-0, min. 14: Suarez; 2-0, min. 52: Messi; 3-0, min. 57: Suarez; 4-0, min. 58: Turan; 5-0, min. 80: Vidal.

Referee: Undiano Mallenco (Navarro).

Yellow Cards: Roque Mesa (Min. 2) for Las Palmas, Rafinha (Min. 25) for Barcelona, Mascherano (Min. 29) for Barcelona, Andre Gomes (Min. 33) for Barcelona, Helder (Min. 41) for Las Palmas, Boateng (Min. 55) for Las Palmas, Livaja (Min. 77) for Las Palmas.

Stadium: Camp Nou.

Attendance: 81,480.