Seven different goalscorers in five games
Rakitic and Pedro opened their accounts for the season at the Ciutat de València
Munir was left on the bench, so Messi is now the only man to have played every game
FC Barcelona’s spectacular start to the season continued last night with a 5-0 thumping of Levante.
That’s four wins out of four, and even better, it’s the first time Barça have ever started a season with four consecutive clean sheets. With eleven goals in the ‘for’ column and none against, the Catalans are two points ahead of Sevilla, who could be joined by Valencia on ten points if they beat Getafe this evening. To top off their fantastic form, Barça also got off to a winning start in the Champions League.
Seven different players have already found the target this season, namely Messi (3), Neymar (3), Sandro (2), Munir, Piqué and Rakitic.
That means all the strikers have opened their accounts, apart from the suspended Luis Suárez.
The goals from Piqué and Rakitic mean that the defence and the midfield have both also contributed to the haul of twelve goals in official competitions.
The Ciutat de València witnessed Rakitic’s first goal for his new club, although he also scored against Levante last season when playing for Sevilla, although that didn’t save his team from 3-2 defeat at the Sanchez Pizjuán.
Pedro also scored last night, his first goal since game 34 of last season, the 2-1 defeat of Athletic Bilbao.
Neymar has scored the opening goal in two consecutive Liga fixtures.
After being sent off (Elche), being suspended (Villarreal), being substituted at half-time (Athletic Bilbao) and being dropped (APOEL), Mascherano played his first full game of the season last night.
Bravo, Mathieu, Alba, Sergio, Rakitic and Messi are the only players that have started every league match this season.
But if we also count the Champions League game, Messi is now the only ever-present this term, after Munir was left on the bench on Sunday.