Messi just keeps getting better



Barcelona recorded a vital late win over Valencia on Saturday, in large part thanks to Lionel Messi somehow producing his best start to a season yet.
The Argentine has had campaigns in which he's bagged 50 goals, claimed the Ballon d'Or, and even started fully fit, but none of those can match the goal-to-game ratio at this stage of the 2016/17 season.
With 14 strikes in 11 games, Messi has scored every 60.2 minutes, a figure so far ahead of his previous best, of 2010/11, that he could go the whole game without scoring against Granada next week and still beat that record.
Let's not forget that the forward has faced numerous injury problems in recent months, as well as attending to the needs of his strike partners Neymar and Luis Suarez to the tune of four assists.

Messi's quarter-mark record over the years

  1. 2016/17: 14 goals in 11 games / 844 minutes / A goal per 60.2 minutes
  2. 2010/11: 14 goals in 12 games / 968 minutes / A goal per 69.14 minutes
  3. 2012/13: 17 goals in 14 games / 1202 minutes / A goal per 70.7 minutes
  4. 2011/12: 19 goals in 16 games / 1379 minutes / A goal per 72.5 minutes
  5. 2013/14: 12 goals in 13 games / 967 minutes / A goal per 80.5 minutes
  6. 2007/08: 9 goals in 11 games / 837 minutes / A goal per 93 minutes
  7. 2008/09: 8 goals in 10 games / 761 minutes / A goal per 95 minutes
  8. 2014/15: 9 goals in 12 games / 1056 minutes / A goal per 117.3 minutes
  9. 2009/10: 9 goals in 13 games / 1116 minutes / A goal per 124 minutes
  10. 2015/16: 6 goals in 10 games / 790 minutes / A goal per 131.6 minutes
  11. 2006/07: 4 goals in 13 games / 1013 minutes / A goal per 253.25 minutes
  12. 2005/06: 0 goals in 6 games / 259 minutes
  13. 2004/05: 0 goals in 3 games / 100 minutes
  14. Stoppage time of Barcelona's Saturday afternoon match against Valencia was packed full of controversy, with the Catalan side awarded and scoring a game-winning penalty, after which the home fans threw objects at the celebrating Barcelona players.
    Seeing Neymar and Luis Suarez struck by the missiles prompted match-winner Lionel Messi to explode with anger and shout towards the stands.
    "La concha de sus madres, hijos de puta," was the common Argentinian expression of frustration that the cameras caught the No.10 shouting, a phrase which roughly translates as "sons of bitches", although it is a little more vulgar.
    Messi's Argentine teammate Javier Mascherano was shown a red card during a match against Eibar in October 2015 for using the same expression, although in that situation the referee believed it had been directed at him.

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