Can Lionel Messi break Marouane Chamakh's record?

Mention Marouane Chamakh to most Arsenal fans, and you will get a variety of opinions, but very few will be positive.

The Moroccan striker is viewed as a flop, only scoring one goal last season, and there would not have been many eyelids batted had the Gunners allowed him to leave this summer.

Still he remains at the Emirates, currently ill, and may even hope to show what he can do in the League Cup if he recovers in time for when Arsenal host Coventry on September 26.

But despite his frankly disappointing Arsenal adventure, did you know he is a Champions League record holder?

Chamakh is the only player to ever score in six consecutive Champions League games.

He netted three times in succession for Bordeaux in 2010 (against Olympiakos and Lyon home and away but could not stop his side's elimination in the knockout round match) and then three times for Arsenal upon joining the following season, scoring past Braga, Olympiakos, and Shakhtar Donetsk.

It is a record which still stands, and not even Lionel Messi has been able to beat.

Barcelona maestro Messi does hold a few records of his own. He has been the Champions League top scorer for the last four successive seasons. He is the only player ever to do this.

When he scored five times in one match against Leverkusen in March, he became the first player to do so in the European Cup since 1979.

Last season he scored 14 goals in the competition, setting a new record, only tied by AC Milan's Jose Alfatini in 1962-63.

But will he break Marouane Chamakh's record? That remains to be seen... 

image: © Ronnie Macdonald