Good Day
Real Madrid
Another win over Atlético Madrid was not the remarkable part of a fine Saturday night for José MourinhoâÂÂs men - although his side were given a bit of a footballing leg-up by the meanie-head referee who reduced the Rojiblancos to ten men - instead it was Barcelona losing 1-0 to Getafe, thus doubling the advantage Madrid hold over the Catalan club ahead of el Clásico in a fortnightâÂÂs time.
It is a bit of a cliché to say that thereâÂÂs a very long way to go in the season and anything can happen in football, but the forces of Mordor very much have the power over the hobbits at Camp Nou. And their leader wonâÂÂt be giving it up without a fight.
Jonas
Winter window signings tend to fly under the media radar unless they are desperate â¬50 million season-saving splurges. Valencia picked up striker, Jonas, from Brazilian side Gremio just under a year ago to very little fanfare. In fact, the Mestalla trumpets werenâÂÂt even dusted off and lips went unmoistened on the arrival of the forward, who scored three league goals last season. His first of the current campaign on Saturday kicked off proceedings in a very handy 2-1 win at Rayo - a victory that puts Valencia just one point behind Barcelona and with a huge incentive to keep up a solid run that sees just one league defeat in eight.
Levante
Before Sunday, LLL saw enough signs to suggest there was still fight left in the old sea dog of Levante, and the blog was proved right with the Valencia club bouncing back with a convincing 4-0 win over Sporting after three defeats. The win keeps Levante in fourth with a five point gap over Sevilla (Málaga yet to play) and probably needing just five more wins this season to stay up.
Sevilla
Still not playing that well, so thatâÂÂs while theyâÂÂll take a 1-0 away win over Zaragoza after a penalty won and converted by Alvaro Negredo.
Luis GarcÃÂa
The Getafe manager is surely a prediction king. Or someone who knows about football tactics - two skills LLL completely lacks. âÂÂBarça suffer at set pieces as they are not tall, except for Piqué and Busquets,â opined The Prophet two days before Juan ValeraâÂÂs winner on Saturday from a corner.
JoaquÃÂn Caparrós
The Mallorca manager picked up his first victory in his spell as Balearic boss. And so he should have done too, considering his team were playing Racing Santander.
Granada
A 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in the Basque country. DidnâÂÂt see that coming.
Iñigo MartÃÂnez
This is getting silly. The Real Sociedad defender has only scored two goals this season. But they have both come from inside his own half. The first was against Athletic Bilbao, and the second was SundayâÂÂs late winner against Betis. Quite, quite silly.
Bad Day
Angel di MarÃÂa
Although the Argentinean returned from injury with a goal in the win against Atlético, the little tyke was back with facets of his game that LLL had thought were being phased out - the constant cheating, diving and faking injury. âÂÂPathetic for a good player that doesnâÂÂt need to it,â stormed Santi Nolla in Sport.
Barcelona
The Getafe performance was lethargic enough to have Barça fans frustratedly banging the side of their televisions to try and provoke some kind of reaction from the Camp Nou collective. It was only in the dying seconds of the game that Barça started to realise the mess they were in and began to react. To be fair, a goal was incorrectly disallowed for offside when it was a Getafe player, MÃÂchel, who got the final touch of the ball and a post was struck. But seeing as draws are the new defeats in la Liga, the result would still have left Real Madrid with a handy cushion at the top of the table.
The local press reaction to the defeat swung between despair, âÂÂwe have to be realistic, the league is lost,â wrote Joan Poquàin Mundo Deportivo,â to semi-defiance, with SportâÂÂs headline claiming that âÂÂtheyâÂÂll have to win at the Bernabeu.âÂÂ
Of course, thereâÂÂs also room for the barking mad, and the ever-reliable Lluis Mascaró, writing in the same paper, provided a big dollop of paranoid lunacy in SundayâÂÂs edition. âÂÂThe (Madrid) media cavern will magnify the euphoria with its propaganda campaign which is now unstoppable.â Indeed.
Athletic Bilbao
The home defeat to Granada sees Athletic having picked up just the single point in San Mamés in the three games against Primera new boys, Rayo, Betis and SundayâÂÂs visitors.
Espanyol
A home defeat for Espanyol against Osasuna, means there is even less good will than normal from a grouchy Paul from Barcelona, especially for his sideâÂÂs neighbours.
âÂÂWell that was rubbish. Things we learned from todayâÂÂs match -
1) Espanyol desperately need a centre-forward. Alvaro, despite scoring, needs more time. Espanyol need an experienced striker.
2) Javi Marquez needs to get fit asap if we donâÂÂt want next seasonâÂÂs derby to be against Sabadell.
3) Osasuna ainâÂÂt much cop and for the supposed âÂÂtoughest team in la Ligaâ they ainâÂÂt very tough.
4) Feigning injury is cheating. If you can get a yellow for diving you should get a yellow for this. OsasunaâÂÂs number six (that would be Javad Nekounam -LLL) was a disgrace to football.
5) Injury time is totally random. A sending-off, a player down for nearly two minutes, a team constantly warned for time-wasting, six substitutions, only four mins !!!. Fourth official, you had a shocker.
6) OsasunaâÂÂs support among part time Crusties has dropped. You used to see loads of mullets supporting them. Now their away support comes in a people carrier. WhatâÂÂs happened? They used to have good away support.
Something learned from another match - that the Getafe result shouldnâÂÂt stand because Getafe are one of the teams Sandro Rosell wants kicked out of the league for being too small.They could be playing Man Utd in Singapore instead. Much more important.âÂÂ
Paul, Barcelona
Atlético Madrid
For the opening 20 minutes of SaturdayâÂÂs encounter, LLLâÂÂs thoughts were probably echoed by the Atlético supporters. âÂÂWhy donâÂÂt you play like this every week?âÂÂ
Thibaud Courtois
LLL will probably go with Iker Casillas on whether it was a sending-off for Atlético Madrid keeper, Thibaut Courtois, who brought down Karim Benzema to completely change a game where the Rojiblancos held the upper hand. The Madrid number one said the penalty and red card were probably justified going by the letter of the law but that âÂÂI hope they change this rule.âÂÂ
Diego GodÃÂn
Oh dear. Another member of the very large âÂÂused to be a good defender, then went to Atlético Madridâ brigade. The Uruguayan was outpaced by Cristiano Ronaldo for MadridâÂÂs second goal, failed to clear a ball for the third and then gave away a penalty and picked up a red card for the fourth. Good work.
Pepe Mel
ThatâÂÂs one point from the last nine games for the Betis boss, who saw his side lose 3-2 at home to Real Sociedad after the visitorsâ miraculous late winner. Pepe Mel said that he would understand if he was fired, however that doesnâÂÂt seem to be the plan for the moment, probably because Betis neither have the cash to pay him off or fund a replacement.
Racing Santander
Bottom-of-the-table with just the single win and nine points. Oh dear.
