Regardless of whether Real Madrid’s opposition were up to much, scoring five goals is fantastic: for moral, confidence, and definitely for an under-fire manager. At the end of the season, we may look back at this past footballing week as the point which Real Madrid hit top gear. Smashing 18 goals in three games, five coming Tuesday night against Elche, is phenomenal and could propel their season to great things.
As usual, Gareth Bale was star of the show, scoring Real's opening goal, which meant he had now scored or assisted in 31 out of 32 games since the start of last season. Even more customary, there was an ever bigger star in the game. Ronaldo, four goals, easy, amazing. It's almost getting boring. Edu Albacar might have scored the opener, a tale for the grandchildren when Grandad opened the scoring at the Bernabeu, but in the context of the game it was but a minor footnote.
Continuing the theme of usualness, Atletico Madrid produced a classic Atletico Madrid performance to eke out a 1-0 away win over Almeria. Miranda produced the only goal of the game and left Rojiblancos third in the table. Almeria’s stubborn performance maintained their solid start to the season, and they weren’t without their chances to snatch a draw from Simeone’s men.
The theme of continuity ends with Barcelona's struggles against Malaga. After swatting away all-comers this season, Barca dropped points for the first time. Luis Enrique had up to six players unavailable for various reasons, and Rakitic and Neymar may have been affected by weekend knocks after turning in rare below-par performances. Nevertheless, Javi Garcia will be delighted with his team’s performance; with Luis Alberto hitting the woodwork from a free-kick Malaga can claim, with some justification, that they deserved the three points. The fact that defender Marc Bartra was the Catalan’s best player tells its own story.
Another team maintaining their undefeated status was Celta Vigo. The Sky Blues’ great start continued with a hard fought win over Deportivo in the Galician Derby. With three out of five of their next games against Spain’s European contingent, a difficult run of fixtures will really test Eduardo Berizzo’s men, but Celta are playing with confidence and verve and won't be an easy team to beat for any La Liga club this season. And who knows, maybe improving on last season’s 9th finish and targeting a Europa League place is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Spain's two current Europa league representatives both had fairly successful evenings. In a tight clash, Villarreal came away with a point away to Eibar. With hopes of a second away victory, Eibar’s opening goal from Mikel Arruabarrena changed mindsets, leaving the Castellons probably happy with Gerard Moreno's 71st minute equaliser. Meanwhile, on the same night Federico Fazio made a man of the match starting debut for his new club Tottenham, Sevilla continued their good form without the previously crucial Argentine. The Andalucian club climb the table once more with a 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad.
It's understandable why the Premiership's Everton FC wanted to keep Gerard Deulofeu. The Barca loanee developed his skills under the Spanish Roberto Martinez on Merseyside, and now it's the Europa League winners which are reaping the reward. Deulofeu’s goal was enough for his side's win, and fans will hope the precocious talent settles down after media reports of friction between him and manager Unai Emery. The victory ensured Seville's unbeaten start was preserved, and are now joint first in the table.
Granada, on the other hand, suffered their first loss of the La Liga season, succumbing to Levante at home. If Barcelona's blank against Malaga was surprising, if not entirely shocking, then El Grana’s loss was perhaps the upset of the midweek fixtures. Indeed, the only thing more surprising than Granada not winning was the fact that Levante scored a goal! Manager Jose Luis Mendilibar will be thankful his side finally got off the goalscoring mark, with Ruben Garcia’s relieved expression after his goal mimicking how happy his team must have been to save further Levante embarrassment.
The final fixture from Wednesday saw Rayo Vallocano gain their first win over a poor Athletic Bilbao. Brazilian youngster Leo Baptistao scored a brace to overcome Aritz Aduriz’s opening goal for Bilbao. Rayo leapfrog their opponents and leave last season’s fourth place team languishing at 17th.
Barcelona's first dropped points bunches things up at the top of the league. Valencia will hope to close the gap further this evening when they take on rock bottom Cordoba, while fellow relegation dwellers Espanyol and Getafe meet in Barcelona. In a fantastically football-filled week for La Liga fans, a week of nightly Spanish action continues with Week 6 fixtures starting Friday night.
