Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez are the men swinging the title race in Barcelona's favour in La Liga. The Argentine, with 17 goals, and the Uruguayan, with 14, lead the standings in the race for the Pichichi. They have 31 of Barça's 53 goals between them and over the last five seasons have guaranteed a return in the league of 56.2 goals per campaign.
Messi and Suarez are breaking records. No team in La Liga has scored more than them. Sevilla and Celta Vigo, with 31, are level with them. The Argentine and the Uruguayan have, for example, scored three more goals than the whole of the Real Madrid squad. The data is brutal and confirms their importance to Barça.
Suarez, who opened the scoring against Eibar, scored a brace in the 3-0 win over the Basques on Sunday. Two goals that strengthened his grip on second place in the Pichichi. He's second only to Messi. Girona's Stuani, with 12, is third.
Messi's goal against Eibar was his 17th in the top flight this season. It was also his 400th goal in La Liga, a record out of the reach of most players.
So far, Messi and Suarez have scored 281 goals in the last five seasons. That's an average of 56.2 per season. Spectacular.
In 2014-15, Messi scored 43 and Suarez 16 (59 in total), in 2015-16 and 2016-17 they added another 66 between them in each campaign (Messi 26 and 37, Suarez 40 and 29); last season (34 and 25) they scored 59; and in the current season they have 17 and 14 for a total of 31.