Messi Business

The greatest player in the world heads to London tonight to face a team he put four goals past in one evening, less than 12 months ago. The terrifying realisation for Arsenal is that Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is even more prolific this season. With 40 goals in just 34 appearances so far this campaign, the Argentinian superstar looks good value to score first at 4/1 with StanJames. He may be the obvious favourite to do so but with Boylesports offering him at just 2/1 the longer price is definitely a tempter.

The facts speak for themselves - Messi and Barcelona are the hottest property going. The 23-year-old last month won the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or to be crowned the best player on the planet for the second year running. His form recently helped propel the Catalan giants to a record 16 consecutive league wins - he scored a hat-trick in the final match of that sequence on February 5th. It should be more of a worry than a boost to Arsenal that when they finally drew a game last weekend it was considered a blip!

The only significant time that Messi has been stopped in the last year or so was when Inter knocked Barcelona out in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season. But Arsenal simply don’t have the mentality to adopt the all-out defensive strategy that Mourhino’s Inter prospered with.

Ironically, Messi himself may be the only reason to look elsewhere in the first goalscorer market. His spell-bounding season has already produced a career-best 19 assists to complement his own goal rush. David Villa and Pedro have been the main beneficaries and can be backed at 11/2 and 6/1 respectively. But the Argentinian has still outscored both men combined and therefore remains the best bet.