The Argentine had been enduring a drought after failing to find the net in four games but he ended that in style, nutmegging a defender before delicately chipping the ball past the goalkeeper after 13 minutes.

He then scored twice more in the first half to take his hat-trick tally in La Liga to 36, two ahead of his rival Cristiano Ronaldo. He added his fourth in the final minutes of the match to seal a sweet win for the Blaugrana.

Even if Messi was having a tough time in front of goal, his performances were still unbelievable, registering eight assists out of his side's last nine La Liga goals before today.

Messi's list of achievements is ridiculous, but becoming the first player to 1,000 goal contributions, that is either scoring or assisting a goal directly, in the history of the game is simply phenomenal.

When you break it down, Barcelona's number 10 has registered 696 goals and assisted 306 times for the Catalan giants and his national side Argentina across his 16-year career.

The frightening thing for the other legendary figures of the game is that the diminutive genius still has at least three or four years before he hangs up his boots and it's likely to be even longer than that.

Messi has won the Ballon d'Or a record six times, with the latest being in 2019 and has guided Barcelona to the top of La Liga, albeit if Real Madrid were to win in their game tonight they would retake the lead.

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If there was one small question mark surrounding the Argentine's glittering career it would be that he has failed to win a World Cup or Copa America with his country, but this latest achievement goes to show once more that he is from a different planet.