Xavi's new-look Barcelona is following the blueprint of footballing father Johan Cruyff

Barcelona's footballing father Johan Cruyff is famous for saying he would rather win 5-4 than 1-0. Judging from Xavi's new look team on Sunday Barca fans should strap themselves for plenty of results that would make the Dutch master smile between now and the end of the season.

The club's winter market activity was all askew. There were no serious defensive signings leaving Xavi with threadbare options at full-back and a shaky centre defence reliant on Gerard Pique and Ronald Araujo staying fit. While up front he finished January with 10 forwards.

And so it was that in the first game of February the team shipped another horrible goal early on but then went on the rampage at the other end and became the first team to score three in a first half against Atletico Madrid.

Adama Traore was brilliant in the first 45 minutes showing immediate signs that Xavi is the perfect coach for him. He'll be told to run at the full-back and cross. He did it three times in the first 21 minutes and the third time he found the head of Gavi who gave Barcelona a 2-1 lead.

It will not always be as straightforward as Atletico Madrid made it but this was a start that will only breed confidence. Two of Barcelona's other goals were scored by their veteran full backs. Alba was at fault in part for the first goal Barca conceded and when he was asked to defend Alves looked all at sea but Atletico stopped trying to run in behind Barca very early on and as attacking full-backs, even at 32 and 38, Alba and Alves still have few peers.

In the second half with a 3-1 lead established there was always a chance Barcelona would struggle the last 25 minutes as they have done so often under Xavi.

That probability seemed even higher when Alves was sent off but Barca held out with 10 men and that in part was due to the luxury on the bench now available to the coach. He was able to bring on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the former Arsenal forward might have scored on his debut if Daniel Wass had not brought him down to snuff out two counters.

Barcelona no longer look on their last legs as the clock runs down and Aubameyang is not the only player that Xavi can bring on. Memphis Depay and Martin Braithwaite will both be 100 per cent at some point, and Xavi made it clear in public in his post-match press conference, what he has been saying privately for some time, that Ousmane Dembele WILL play.

'I was going to bring him on,' Xavi said on Sunday before the sending off changed his plan. He said the fans had had their say with the whistles that were heard when Dembele's name was announced before kick-off but that now it was time to put the jeers in the past and get behind the player. It remains in Xavi's mind to play Dembele as he takes his obsession with quick direct forwards to the extreme.

With Barcelona's forward line bursting with pace the team will play on the front foot for 90 minutes in a way they were not able to do when they were limited to using youth team players such as Ferran Jutgla and Abde and the more static centre-forward Luuk de Jong.

And Xavi knows he already has a midfield with the energy to play that way. Gavi, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong and Nico have the engines to fuel the forward line ahead of them. Barcelona's midfield swamped the Atletico pairing of Koke and Rodrigo de Paul on Sunday.

The only 'but' in all of this is that Barcelona are still playing with fire in defence with five of the same back six that played the the Champions League final in 2015. With Clement Lenglet, Eric Garcia and Samuel Umtiti currently out injured a knock now to Araujo or Pique would throw Xavi's defensive plans into chaos, especially in the Europa League where he has decided to leave out Dani Alves and the plan is to use Araujo as a right back.

But for now there are enough fit defenders to carry off the mad plan of attack, attack, attack. Barcelona never took so much as a half-step backwards after they conceded on Sunday and it paid off. There is only one way to play with this group of players. Xavi will keep waving them forward, and with 10 forwards to pick from it will be a hair-raising run-in to the season.