Much maligned. Much derided. Much ridiculed and mostly used for bench warming, Sergi Roberto's season in 2023 has not been worth writing much about.

Quite like the team he represents in FC Barcelona, for those who find humour in irony.

He has been a peripheral team member for the past few seasons. The only difference this season is that he has been the Barca team captain from the bench (make what you will of that). And yet against Almeria, he was Xavi's surprise starter who not only played like what Barca would expect their players to play like, showed some agency, did the basics right, fought till the end and single-handedly delivered a much-needed win with two sublime goals (albeit the game was a painful one to watch like most Barca games these days).