Deportivo Alaves 0-5 Barcelona: 5 Talking Points as Blaugrana finish with a flourish | La Liga 2019-20 

A heavily rotated Barcelona side dispatched Deportivo Alaves in their final LaLiga match of the season. Goals from Ansu Fati, Luis Suarez, Nelson Semedo, and a Lionel Messi brace gave the Catalans a 5-0 win at the Estadio Mendizorroza.

The visitors started the game on the front foot and hit the post three times inside the first 15 minutes after Messi, Arturo Vidal, and Riqui Puig all saw efforts come off the upright.

Given their total dominance, it was only a matter of time before they broke the deadlock and they did so in the 24th minute when Ansu Fati got on the end of a low centre into the box by Lionel Messi.

The Argentine soon got on the scoresheet himself, finishing an excellent team move just 10 minutes later and Luis Suarez made sure of the result with a low header just before half-time.

Second-half goals from Nelson Semedo and Messi put further gloss on the scoreline, as Barcelona finished the season on a high.

Here, we shall be having a rundown of five talking points from the fixture.

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#5 Five-star Barcelona sign out of season in style

Setien's men dominated from start to finish

A combination of a capitulation from Barcelona and an incredible performance from Real Madrid ensured that the Catalans lost their grip on LaLiga on the penultimate matchday.

A common accusation of Barcelona in recent weeks has been their lack of inventiveness and mobility. However, against Alaves, the Blaugrana brought their A-game on.

It was a five-star performance from Setien's men, with total dominance ensured from start to finish. The hosts can consider themselves lucky not to have been on the end of a more embarrassing scoreline.

Sergio Busquets and Riqui Puig controlled proceedings from midfield, ensuring Alaves did not get a foothold in the match. Neto was nothing more than a spectator, as Juan Muniz' men failed to register a single shot on target across 90 minutes.

Although the game was essentially a dead-rubber, Quique Setien would have been pleased with how well his side played from start to finish.

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#4 La Masia shows hope for the future

Riqui Puig was impressive

A combination of injuries and suspensions to first-team regulars as well as the insignificance of the fixture ensured that Quique Setien started more youth players than usual.

Ansu Fati is no stranger to the first team, having made a name for himself as one of the brightest prospects in world football this season. Aside from the 17-year-old, other Barcelona B hopefuls like Riqui Puig and Ronald Araujo were handed starts against Alaves.

The former has earned rave reviews for his performances post-lockdown and once again produced a display that belied his age, as he served as the link between defence and attack with consummate ease.

Puig was full of running throughout the game and his pristine passing and vision carved open the Alaves defence on several occasions. He ended the night with two assists which would boost his stock immensely.

For his part, Ansu Fati scored his seventh league goal and eighth in all competitions when he showed great striker's instinct to convert Messi's square ball in the first half.

His record is especially impressive when you consider that he has played just above 1,000 minutes of league football this season, which means that he has found the back of the net every 145 minutes of LaLiga action.

Araujo was solid alongside Clement Lenglet and with their performances, the future looks bright for La Masia.

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#3 Quique Setien sweating on fitness of key players ahead of Champions League

Lenglet huddled off injured

When the Barcelona teamsheet for the clash with Alaves was released, just five names were on the bench against the allowed number of 11, which was indicative of how depleted Setien's options were.

The Catalans are currently rocked by injuries to first-team players, with Ousmane Dembele (hamstring), Samuel Umtiti (knee), Antoine Griezmann (muscle), Arthur (ankle), and Jean-Clair Todibo (groin) all currently sidelined.

For most of the game, Clement Lenglet struggled with an injury and was substituted at the start of the second half, while Luis Suarez also showed signs of discomfort.

With a marquee clash against Napoli coming up in the Champions League, Quique Setien would hope most of his players can return to full fitness in a bid end a disastrous season on a high.

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#2 Poor Alaves fail to turn up

Alaves were no match for Barcelona's brilliance

With their 2-1 away win over Real Betis guaranteeing their safety in the Spanish top-flight, Alaves came into this fixture with nothing but pride to play for.

Perhaps they went overboard in their celebrations but El Glorioso put up a no-show on their own turf, with strikers Lucas Perez and Joselu on the peripheries throughout the match, while Neto was not called into any meaningful action.

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#1 Lionel Messi poised for yet more records

Lionel Messi was the star of the show again

Due to Barcelona's shortcomings this season, the general consensus is that Lionel Messi had a poor campaign. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals that this is far from the case.

On many occasions, the 33-year-old has been the individual driving force for the Catalans and it says a lot about his lofty standards that a campaign which saw him score 25 goals and register 21 assists is considered poor.

Having earlier equalled Xavi's LaLiga record for most assists in a single season with his 20th assist against Real Valladolid, Messi went one further and made the LaLiga record his own when he set up Ansu Fati for the game's opener.

He would also have his eyes on more records, as with his brace, he went four clear of nearest challenger Karim Benzema in the race for the Golden Boot.

Barring an otherwordly performance from the Real Madrid man against Leganes, Messi would win a seventh Pichichi award, taking him one clear of the great Telmo Zarra as the man with the most LaLiga Golden Boots in history.