The best stats behind Messi and Barcelona’s superb start to the season

Despite all the drama throughout the summer, Barcelona have surprised most by going unbeaten in the early weeks of the season.

The club have reached the international break top of La Liga with seven wins out of seven, and have also won both of their Champions League games too.

Barcelona have also picked up some pretty interesting stats, along the way and here’s the best of the bunch:

Messi magic....

• Lionel Messi has had more shots on target (25) than any other player in the top five European leagues this season.
• He has scored 11 goals in La Liga this season, that’s his best ever start after the first seven league games.
• Messi has scored 45 goals for Barcelona in 2017, at least 14 more than any other La Liga player (in all competitions).
• Current La Liga players with the most goals: Lionel Messi 360 Cristiano Ronaldo 285 Artiz Aduriz 150.
• Against Las Palmas, Messi made his 100th assist for Barcelona at the Camp Nou in all competitions and his 139th in La Liga.
• Messi’s assist for Sergio Busquets was also the first time he had ever assisted the midfielder.
• Messi completed more dribbles against Las Palmas (10) than any other player has managed in a La Liga match this season.

Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images

And here’s one Messi stat you might struggle to believe...

• But Messi has failed to create a single goalscoring opportunity in Barcelona's first two Champions League group matches.

Busquets and Mascherano...

• Busquets’ goal against Las Palmas was his first for Barcelona for 1036 days - since 30th November 2014.
• Javier Mascherano made his 200th Barcelona appearance in La Liga against Las Palmas, the fourth non-Spanish player to reach the landmark (Messi 389, Alves 247, Cocu 205).

Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images

And the team....

• Barcelona top scorers this season in all competitions are: Lionel Messi 12, own goals 4, Paulinho 2, Denis Suarez 2, Luis Suarez 2.
• Napoli and Barcelona are the only teams with a 100% start to the season in Europe's top 5 leagues this term
• Barcelona’s home record in all competitions this season reads: played 5, won 5, scored 19, conceded 1.
• Barcelona have won all seven games in La Liga 2017/18, equalling their best ever start in the competition (seven in 2013/14).

*All stats courtesy of Opta, WhoScored.com and Squawka