La Liga: FC Barcelona 5-1 CA Osasuna: Player Ratings

Unfortunately, Victor Valdés couldn’t keep a clean sheet to repay the support shown by the Camp Nou crowd, although there was nothing he could do about Raoul Loe’s goal. Thanks to the red-card – and Barcelona’s dominance of possession – Valdés didn’t make a single save in the match and I scarcely remember him touching the ball in the whole of the second half.

Alves registered his third assist of the week in what was yet another impressive performance on the right-flank for the Brazilian full-back. Admittedly, his assist was relatively straight-forward, but equally, a lesser player may have elected to shoot in a similar situation *cough*Ronaldo*cough*. And that’s what we love about Alves; he can be wasteful, he can be frustrating, but it’s all worth it when he puts in a performance like this. In particular, his link-up play with Messi is out of this world, and if it wasn’t for the frame of Andrés Fernandez’ goal, Alves would have had another assist for the Argentine.

As always, Puyol made a number of crucial interventions in the heart of the defense, but he also contributed to a few Barcelona attacks as well, most notably setting up an early chance for Thiago Alcântara with a pin-point diagonal pass. Ever the model professional, Puyol ran his heart out for the team from start to finish, shaking off collisions with a number of Osasuna players to finish the 90 minutes.

A decent showing for Mascherano, who can count himself unlucky not to have a clean sheet to show for his efforts in defense. With Puyol and Busquets making the majority of the interceptions, it was down to Mascherano to act as the enforcer and stop anyone who even so much as attempted to enter Barça’s defensive third. It’s a role that suits him well, although whether he will reprise that role on Wednesday remains to be seen.

When all was said and done, this might not have been Adriano’s best match of the season, but he played a decisive role in the victory nonetheless; setting up two of Messi’s four goals. Being honest, Adriano only set-up Messi once and that was for his final goal, but it was his shot that was illegally blocked in the area by Alejandro Arribas, so I guess Adriano can claim a slice of the credit for the penalty as well.

As the statistics show, Busquets was everywhere last night; but there is one area that he particularly thrives in: his reading of the game. Not only does Busquets know which pass to play in any given situation, he also knows who to pass to, and when to play that pass. In fact, it’s almost like he knows when the opposition are going to pass as well; Spanish television displayed a graphic showing that Busquets had made 14 interceptions by the time he was replaced by Alex Song, although Whoscored have since revised that figure to five.

Has there ever been a more consistent midfield player than Xavi Hernández? Once again, Xavi was in imperious form; laying on one assist and creating countless chances for his teammates. As mentioned in the review, Xavi displayed excellent composure to skip past the challenge of Arribas and thread the ball through to Messi for the game’s opening goal. Xavi also played a part in the Barça’s third, expertly lifting the ball over the Osasuna defense to find Dani Alves, who in turn set-up Pedro for an easy tap-in.

Thiago started brightly, and nearly scored the game’s opening goal with less than five minutes on the clock, but unfortunately his effort was parried clear by Andrés Fernandez. Thiago did brilliantly to create the chance with his movement off the ball, and he showed immense determination to stay on his feet despite the pressure from the recovering Osasuna defense; it’s just a shame he couldn’t finish the chance. Aside from that, Thiago was a little quiet, creating just one chance – which Pedro fired over the bar.

A solid showing from David Villa who completed the full 90 minutes on his return from injury. While El Guaje is not expected to start Wednesday’s Clasico, his return to full fitness is a massive boost for the Blaugrana, especially as he offers a completely new dimension to the attack. Stretching the defense with his penetrating runs, Villa didn’t get many opportunities to score last night, but he did set up one of Messi’s goals with a nice through ball.

Four shots on target, four goals; I’d say that’s a productive night for Lionel Messi. He could have got five as well if it wasn’t for the frame of the goal – but I suppose the Argentine will be content with his 33 goal haul, especially at such an "early" stage of the season.

It’s quite an achievement to wander offside more often than David Villa in a single game, which is exactly what Pedro did last night. That being said, Pedro did get on the score-sheet for the third successive game, and we’ll be overjoyed if he makes it four with a goal (or more) on Wednesday night.

Poor Alexis. Whatever he does, no matter how hard he tries, it really does appear as though the Chilean is destined to fail. Yet again, another couple of golden chances went begging, and with them went his hopes of a start in the Clasico – a game in which he thrived last season.

What more can we ask of the team? Not only did the Blaugrana secure the three points, but they did so in style, dispatching five goals past the Osasuna defense; and all without breaking too much of a sweat ahead of Wednesday's Clasico.

The only qualm we can have regarding Roura's performance as stand-in coach is his substitutions. Personally, I would have taken Xavi off a little sooner, but all in all, I feel just as confident with Roura on the sidelines as I do with Tito.

With four goals to his name, Messi was always going to walk away with the MoTM award, although I was slightly surprised to see Villa in second place - aside from Messi, I thought Dani Alves was the game's stand-out performer.