Lionel Messi continued his sensational 2021 form with another masterclass during Barcelona’s 6-1 La Liga victory away at Real Sociedad on Sunday night.The legendary Argentine forward scored two goals and provided an assist to further improve his obscene 2021 stats.Sergio Dest also netted a brace in the rout at Anoeta, while Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele netted Barça’s other two goals.The result means Ronald Koeman’s side stay four points behind leaders Atletico Madrid - and two ahead of Real Madrid - with 10 fixtures left to play.With Messi in such scintillating form, Barcelona will surely push Atletico right to the wire over the coming weeks.A two-minute highlights video of Messi’s latest performance has been posted on social media - and you can watch it here…

Following the match, La Liga posted a tweet with some of Messi’s extraordinary achievements after he became Barcelona’s record appearance holder.

These include most goals, most assists, most wins, most braces, most hat-tricks, most teams scored against, most goals in a single season, most Barcelona titles and most Player of the Match awards.

“Goat for a reason,” the tweet ends.

Anyone would think La Liga are desperate for the six-time Ballon d’Or winner, whose Barcelona contract expires at the end of the season, to stay in Spain beyond this summer.

SofaScore.com named Messi as the game’s star performer with an 8.9 rating. His heat map from the game shows he was a constant threat around the penalty area.

WhoScored.com, meanwhile, gave Messi an even more impressive 9.55 rating.

Per the same website, Messi has now recorded an astonishing 11 Man of the Match awards in 12 La Liga appearances this season.

The South American, who turns 34 years old in June, has scored 16 goals and provided seven assists in those 12 matches.

That's more goal involvements than any other player in Europe's top five leagues since the start of 2021, per Opta.

While the likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe have produced outstanding performances recently, Messi’s form is currently on a different level to every other footballer.