La Liga: FC Barcelona 4-0 Rayo Vallecano: Player Ratings

What more can there be said about Valdes' game this season? Victor had another near flawless performance against the Madrid based team with just about the only negative being his terrible pass rate (27%) and the fact that he didn't connect with any of his 20 long passes. But I'm nitpicking here as Valdes made three or four excellent saves, including a penalty kick, and finished the game with nine stops. He looked confident throughout the game also making a couple of heads up plays, like the play in the first half where he made a long run to the right corner flag to prevent the ball going out for a corner kick

Montoya's first game of the season didn't start the way he probably envisioned it. He looked shaky in defense and was even lucky that his back pass to Valdes didn't end up in the goal. But the right-back's performance gradually improved and in the second half Montoya basically didn't put a foot wrong. Even though he wasn't very involved in the attacking phase of the game Montoya finished the game with a very poor pass success rate.

Pique was one of only four Barcelona starters that finished the game with a pass completion rate of over 80% which shows that Pique was a rare player that didn't give up the too many times. He also recovered the ball a handful of times on Rayo's half and near midfield. In fact, Pique made more plays in that area then both Cesc and Xavi. In his own zone, however, Pique didn't quite show the confidence he showed further up the pitch as he often went down too early to actually make a play on the ball.

Like most of his defensive teammates Mascherano too struggled connecting passes, which a couple times led to quick chances for the opponents. But apart from that area of the game Mascherano was once again the best defender on the pitch for Barcelona. With Montoya playing more defensively than Barça's standard right-back, Dani Alves, the Argentine didn't need to cover the right side as often he did in past games, but he offered a lot of support to Adriano. But because of the sheer amount of shots on Valdes' goal I'm sure Mascherano felt like he could've done more to ease Valdes' workload.

The usually very defensively-sound Adriano made quite a few mistakes. It all started when the Brazilian made a poor off the ball tackle that earned him a yellow card and continued minutes later when he gave up a penalty kick. The call might have been soft, but he did put the referee in a position that he had the option to point to the spot. Adriano did put in a cleaner second half and even made a handful of important clearances.

Unfortunately for Song, playing in the pivote position will always bring comparisons to Sergio Busquets. A reputation he can’t live up to but Song did show signs of improvement especially when it came to getting his positions right. Making six interceptions throughout the match, Song helped to regain midfield dominance for Barcelona. One downside to his game is his passing, 76% completed is not high enough for his position and Song will need to improve on that.

Despite not getting as much midfield dominance as he is used to, especially in the opening stages, Xavi continued to pull the strings from his midfield position. A pass success rate of above 90% has become expected of Xavi and he duly delivered tonight, completing 46 passes to earn himself a 91% pass success rate. Whilst not actually managing a shot himself, Xavi posed a threat on the edge of Rayo’s area, especially in the later stages of the match when he intercepted a sloppy pass to assist midfield partner Fàbregas. The highlight of his game being a superb back-heel control on the sideline to prevent a Rayo throw.

One assist and one goal means Fàbregas had another good, effective match for Barcelona. Breaking forward when possible, the Barcelona number four looked dangerous in Rayo’s half. This danger turned into goals when he found himself with space on the left wing and produced a great driven cross into the feet of Pedro, for his second goal of the game. Fàbregas can feel somewhat fortunate to get on the scoresheet after a defensive error gifted the ball to Xavi, but Cesc produced a world class finish to score his first Liga goal of the season. A good night when Fàbregas’ attacking potential and passing excellence combined well.

Enthusiastic and clinical; this was Pedro at his very best – as his hat-trick moved him into a tie for second-place in the race for the Pichichi, level with Atletico Madrid centre-forward, Diego Costa. Almost always in the right place at the right time, Pedro could do no wrong; maybe proving to Gerardo Martino that he deserves to start ahead of Chilean winger, Alexis Sánchez on Tuesday when the Blaugrana entertain Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou.

For the first time this La Liga season and for just the second time in his past 26 (!) La Liga appearances, Lionel Messi didn’t put his name on the scoresheet last night against Rayo Vallecano. However, Messi probably deserved a goal for his troubles; he was in exceptional form, dancing away from the Rayo defenders at will to not only create chances for himself, but also for his teammates. For proof, cast your mind back to Pedro’s opening goal; that was created by a trademark Messi dribble and Neymar could have easily benefitted too, if not for his slightly wayward finishing.

The goal will come; it’s just a matter of time. On another night, Neymar would have walked away from this match with a brace: only the frame of the goal and a last-ditch clearance from Tito denied him his rewards for another good performance. The Brazilian doesn’t seem like a player to suffer from a lack of confidence in front of goal, but nevertheless, Culés will be hoping that he breaks his La Liga duck sooner rather than later.

Iniesta replaced Pedro to give the struggling Barcelona midfield a bit of stability, and that’s exactly what he did. Completing all 11 of his passes, Iniesta didn’t have enough time to truly influence the match, but certainly helped Barça close out the game.

Forget the statistics and take the game as a whole. With the final scoreline, would you classify this as a good result, or a bad performance? Victor Valdés was called into action a few times – but was rarely tested by a lack-lustre Rayo attack. Even the penalty kick was poorly taken. Barcelona’s strike-force on the other hand was clinical, despite an under-whelming display from the midfield and the disappointing Barça defense was also in relatively good form. Compared to the past couple of La Liga matches, this was a sensational display.

More rotation and another three points – we can’t ask for much more from Martino at this point.

With a little over half the vote, Victor Valdes claimed his third Man of the Match award of the season -- and his first since the second leg of the Supercopa de España.