Barcelona were back to somewhere near their best last night away to Villarreal.

Quique Setien's side ran out 4-1 winners, with Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Ansu Fati all getting on the scoresheet.

Lionel Messi had a goal disallowed by VAR and hit the crossbar from a free-kick, but the Argentine did chip in with two assists, securing the man-of-the-match award once again.

The 33-year-old is now on 19 assists for the season in La Liga and it looks all but certain that he will reach 20 in the final four games of the season.

It was also a historic night for Barcelona as a club overall in the El Madrigal, with Fati's late strike the 9000th goal scored by the Blaugrana in all competitions.

Amazingly, Messi has actually contributed to just over 10% of those 9000 goals throughout the club's 111-year history.

He has scored 630 goals and notched 275 assists in all competitions, taking his overall goal involvement tally to 905.

Messi in action

Even in a world where we're used to numbers involving Messi blowing our minds, these statistics are particularly outrageous.

The Argentine's place at the top of the scoring charts for Barcelona is simply never going to be equalled.

In second place sits Cesar Rodriguez with 230 goals, while Luis Suarez and Ladislao Kubala are joint-third on 194 goals apiece.

That's how far Messi is ahead of the rest and to be honest, it's scarcely believable.

Suarez in action

The phrase 'no player is bigger than a club' is normally always correct, but in the case of Messi and Barcelona, the normal rule simply cannot be applied.

Without the little magician during 2019/20, there's no telling how far the Blaugrana would have fallen.

Enjoy the last few years of Messi's career, because he's not going to be around forever and frankly, we may never see a player quite like him ever again.