While Barca were away winning the Club World Cup two weeks ago, and taking their haul of trophies over the course of the year to six, Real Madrid cut their league lead to just two points with a 6-0 demolition of Real Zaragoza.
Real's resurgent form will be a powerful motivating factor as Barcelona return from the winter break on Saturday and if the Catalans need another it will be the memory of what happened last time they played in the Club World Cup.
Barca's Brazilian full-back Alves is confident the same will not happen under Guardiola.
"With the coach we have there will be no relaxation because he has taught us that we'll only keep winning if we maintain our ambition," Alves told reporters.
"We are going to do all we can to make sure this book has more than one page."
Villarreal have won three on the trot to climb to ninth after their poor start to the season.
HEAD OF STEAM
"We had a period of adaptation because there were many new faces in the team but now we are starting to get the results," Cristiano Ronaldo told sports daily AS.
"The team is improving all the time and I am sure we'll win a title this year."
"The truth is we have had an awful first third of the season, horrific," Atletico president Enrique Cerezo told AS.
"We have a lot to do to recover the lost ground."
