The Barcelona winning machine continued to roll on yesterday after their impressive 5-1 win over Rayo Vallecano. They now have an 8-point lead over Atletico Madrid in second place and are 12 points ahead of Real Madrid in third.
The win meant Barcelona are now on a 35-match unbeaten streak in all competitions beating Madrid’s record of 34 held by them since 1988-89 season. Here are some of the stats and records broken after last night:
35 – Barca are now 35 games unbeaten the longest ever run in Spain. They are currently third in the all-time list with Juventus 2012 record of 43 unbeaten their next target. Celtic currently stand alone in this category having gone 62 matches unbeaten
30+ – Messi scored three goals yesterday reaching the thirty-goal landmark for the season. It's the eighth consecutive season he has managed that feat. The last time he scored less than that figure was in 2007-08 season when he managed only 16
18 – The Argentine now has 18 goals in 16 appearances in all competitions in 2016. He had only managed 11 by the 2nd of January since the start of the season. It's been an incredible run of form since then by the little man.
35 – Messi now has thirty-five hat-tricks in La Liga. He has equalled Ronaldo's all-time record for trebles. Only time will tell how many more both of them will score.
20 – Messi has scored 20 goals in his first 16 games in 2016, the best calendar-year start in his career.The highest he has achieved at the end of a year is 96 goals in 2012. That year he had 17 at the same stage.
10 – Neymar might not have scored yesterday but he did provide an assist for one of Messi’ goals. The forward reached double figures for assists and goals (18) this season which makes him the first Brazilian to reach that landmark since former Barca legend Ronaldinho.
200 – Messi (82), Suarez (66) and Neymar (52) have now racked up 200 goals for Barcelona since their latest addition, Suarez joined them last summer. Remember Suarez started the season a couple of months late, in October 2014 due to his ban.
300 – The Catalans have now scored 300 goals under the leadership of Luis Enrique. It’s hard to believe they have reached this target in only a couple of years.
217 – The MSN trio have scored 72% of those 300 goals which is quite remarkable considering the remaining squad members have only managed 43 in all!
Barcelona just seem to love playing Rayo Vallecano be it any competition.
10 – The Spanish giants have now won 10 consecutive games against their opponents, and Messi has scored in 8 of 9 career appearances against them as well
9 – Defence seems to be the main problem for Rayo as they have made more errors leading to goals than any other team in La Liga this season
But Barca’s poor form from the penalty spot continued yesterday after Suarez was the next one to miss.
7 - Barcelona are the first side to miss seven penalties in a single La Liga season since the 1998/99 season.
9 – They have also failed from 9 of their 18 spot-kicks in all competitions this season
Stats via OptaJose, SkySports and MisterChiping
