Dembele, Messi partnership fuelling Barca goal rush
Lionel Messi’s blossoming partnership with electric winger Ousmane Dembele has helped Barcelona to four straight wins at the start of the Liga season and the pair will be gunning for more goals at home to fellow Catalan side Girona on Sunday.
While some concerns remain about Barca’s away performances, following scrappy wins at Real Valladolid and Real Sociedad, Ernesto Valverde’s side have been frighteningly good at home this season, scoring 15 goals in three games at the Nou Camp.
Messi and Dembele have been the architects of their dominance.
Messi typically hogged the headlines after scoring a record eighth Champions League hat-trick in a 4-0 win over PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday but the bigger surprise was the performance of Dembele.
The Frenchman has enjoyed a superb start to the season and has already matched his goal tally from the whole of the last campaign by scoring five times in six games.
With his last campaign marred by injury problems and struggles to adapt to his new surroundings after a big-money move from Borussia Dortmund, Dembele has been playing with renewed confidence and is having a huge impact this term.
The Frenchman’s bursts of pace and his ability to dance past defenders have given Barca an outlet they have lacked since the departure of Neymar to Paris St Germain last year.
Dembele has also proved decisive, scoring winning goals at Valladolid and Sociedad and in the Spanish Super Cup win over Sevilla while striking the second goal which killed off PSV.