Barcelona won the Spanish La liga title this season and will be hoping to add another trophy come May 25th against Valencia. Lionel Messi was obviously Barcelona best player this season, with the main question being who came in second behind the Argentine magician. With the likes of Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Andre Marc Ter Stegen, Jordi Alba and the most critcised Philippe Coutinho all contributing their quota to the team's success.
The end of this LaLiga Santander season has been good for Arturo Vidal, who has closed the campaign in fine form and forced himself into a starting position under Ernesto Valverde. His importance has been clear and he has become one of Lionel Messi's allies on the field, which was demonstrated with yet another assist at Ipurua on Sunday.
The former Bayern Munich midfielder started slowly at the Camp Nou and he is attitude shows he wasn't happy about being left mostly on the bench in the first few weeks at the club, but unlike other players who take that as an excuse to relax, the former Juventus man put his head down and established himself in the team to become one of the most important players in the squad.
One of the games that announced the Chilean was their first leg semi-final clash against Liverpool at Camp Nou. Vidal took it upon himself to battle it out against Jurgen Klopp's all attacking side, breaking play and causing havoc for Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. Even when Messi stole the show a few minutes before the end of the game, the Blaugrana fans noticed his hard work that gave them the 3-0 victory.
Barcelona most important games every season has always been the El Clasico a mouthwatering clash against Real Madrid, and this season Vidal went on to score his first goal for the Catalans in the all-important game with a stunning header in the 87th courtesy of Ousmane Dembele cross.
Summing all the games together, Vidal took part in 52 games in all competitions this season. Thirty-three of those have come in LaLiga Santander, of which he has started 28, and he hit the back of the net on three occasions, which came against Real Madrid, Getafe, and Real Betis.
But what stands out most are his assists, as he has seven and most of those have been for Messi. The Argentine No.10 has been assisted six times by the Chilean, and the most recent of those came on the final day. Vidal is providing competition to Jordi Alba for the role of Messi's best partner, and he has one more assist than even the Spaniard.
Even with all the stunning statistics of Vidal this season there is only one backtrack to this as the Chilean is already in his prime as he will be clocking 32 years tomorrow. Which means he has a little time to spend at the Camp Nou, but the fans will still enjoy some moments of greatness from him few years left on his contract.
Vidal's excellent performances have justified his arrival for 20 million euros last summer. Now, he seems certain to start in the Copa del Rey final against Valencia.
Spanish La liga predictions
