Messi dominates La Liga stats, even one negative one

The La Liga season ended yesterday with FC Barcelona clinching the title with a 11-point lead over closest rivals Atletico Madrid and finishing 19 points over arch rivals Real Madrid -- the most-ever in the Catalan club’s history. Once again, they have one man to thank for this domestic domination, Lionel Messi.

Messi lead the goal-scoring and assists charts, winning the Pichichi trophy -- his brace in Barca’s 2-2 draw against Eibar yesterday saw him equaling the great Telmo Zarra on six, who played for Athletic Bilbao between 1940 and 1955.  Messi's 36 goals also extended his lead in the European Golden Boot race, now four goals ahead of PSG's Kylian Mbappe, who claimed his own brace against Dijon on Saturday.

Stat based site Squawka published an amazing set of stats on ‘La Liga Stat Leaders’ and Messi lead all criteria except one. He led the next highest goal-scorer (Luis Suarez) by 15 goals and has the most number of goals from outside the box and from freekicks. Such was his domination in La Liga this season that he even topped the chart for hitting the bar the greatest number of times.