Barcelona continued their excellent early-season form under Hansi Flick as the La Liga leaders swept aside city rivals Espanyol to move nine points clear of Real Madrid.

Fresh from beating Real in their El Clasico match last week, Barca’s attacking play was once again sensational at times, with teenage winger Lamine Yamal once again looking a class above his contemporaries.

He made a beautiful cross with the outside of his foot, which Dani Olmo turned in off the crossbar to open the twelfth minute.

Another talented youngster, Marc Casado, played an equally good ball behind Espanyol’s defense eleven minutes later, where captain Raphinha timed his run perfectly to tap the ball home.

Defensively, Barça’s incredibly high line made life interesting again, with Espanyol having two goals disallowed due to narrow offside.

Fullback Omar el Hilali set up Jofre Carreras for an incursion, but the attack was disallowed by the video assistant referee (VAR). Moments later, Olmo got his second with a thumping shot from the edge of the penalty area to put Barca 3-0.

At the beginning of the second half, Alvaro Tejero’s effort for the visitors was also disallowed after another narrow offside.

However, captain Javi Puado came in at the far post 18 minutes after the break to reduce the deficit.

Espanyol improved as Barcelona retired, but the fourth-placed side remained in second place throughout as their dismal derby record continued.

They have now gone 27 derbies in a row without a win over Barcelona and have lost six of their last seven matches in La Liga.

Flick’s side have won 11 of 12 league games under the German and have won six in a row in all competitions since their only defeat to Osasuna at the end of September, scoring 24 goals in the process.

They visit Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League on Wednesday and will try to maintain this wonderful form.

Earlier on Sunday, third-placed Atletico Madrid defeated Las Palmas 2-0 to move to within a point of Real in the table.