It was a ground that FC Barcelona had not won at in five years, and one in which they had thrown away the title just a few months ago.

Rightfully so, however, Ronald Koeman refused to be drawn into getting hung up on the past during his prematch press conference this week, and instead wanted to focus on the task in hand - the here and now - away at Celta Vigo on Thursday night.

And while temperatures had dropped in the Catalan capital, the conditions that awaited the Blaugrana at the Estadio de Balaidos were far more grueling.

Through the wind and rain, however, Koeman’s men weathered the storm; coach and team alike rewarded for their bravery with a 3-0 win when all was said and done.
It is of course early days. Yet whereas before they might have fallen a goal behind, or thrown away a lead and found themselves trailing after an early opener from Ansu Fati, Barça seemed to have banished the road woes of old in just 90 minutes through their best performance of 2020 as a calendar year.

Going a man down via Clement Lenglet’s red card approaching the interval would have usually been a recipe for capitulation under Valverde or Setien.

Though as opposed to demonstrating psychological frailties that have been their undoing in recent years, Barça carried on pressing even with just nine outfield players and were rewarded with two more goals that could have easily been three had a smiling Lionel Messi not been ruled offside.

“Order, mentality, solidarity, sacrifice and talent,” read a mantra from As’ FCB correspondent Javi Miguel post-match, before he added that Koeman “has managed to balance all these concepts”.

Others claimed that they had not seen the team run as much as a collective in the “last five years put together” - the fruits of rigorous double training sessions and orders to report one hour early to the Joan Gamper CT paying off - nor battle with such intensity for a “very long time”.

Everyone is working hard, from the kids to the veterans, and it is difficult to argue with two wins from two and a pair of clean sheets.

Koeman getting rid of the deadwood, he has also changed not just Barça’s formation and strategy, but also their mentality - in turn restoring faith to Cules much sooner than expected by forming an outfit that looks prepared to die on its shield.

Yeah... Dem don dey make mouth after two matches.