Casillas and Madrid one year on: Who are the winners and losers?

Icon departed for Porto last July after 25 years with the club

A tearful Casillas bids Real Madrid farewell

It was the 13th of July 2015 when one of the longest-lasting and successful relationships in modern football came to an end as Iker Casillas left Real Madrid to join Porto.

It had been a relationship marked by highs in the 25 years the man from Mostoles had spent attached to the club; assuming his spot in the first team at the tender age of 18 due to injuries, he went on to claim an unlikely Champions League success that first year in a season that had been shambolic until Vicente Del Bosque took the helm.

He went on to play 725 games for Los Blancos, claiming three Champions League titles in all as well as five domestic leagues; for Spain he captained La Roja to an unprecedented treble, the 2010 World Cup being bookended by the European Championships of 2008 and 2012.

That latter success coming off the back of dethroning Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona domestically can, albeit with hindsight, be seen as marking the peak and the starting point of the goalkeeper’s slow descent.

The details are well known, and hardly merit rehashing here now; but essentially Casillas ceased to be indispensable, first at club level and, finally, this summer for the national team.

It’s a curious quirk that the man who saw fit to replace him at the latter turned out to be that very same Del Bosque who had shown such faith in his during that crisis period of the 1999/2000 season at Madrid.

And ultimately, despite some missteps following Spain’s second round exit at this summer’s Euros, they went their separate ways on good terms, with Del Bosque rowing back from his previous criticism of the great keeper’s reaction to being dropped during on interview on Radio Onda Cero last week.

Indeed, the pair were to be pictured together smiling to show that no ill feeling persisted.

So, who has benefited from that departure almost a year ago to the day? It could be argued that it’s been good for all concerned.

For Madrid, the Casillas question had become political; Jose Mourinho’s decision to keep him out of the side in his final season once his fitness had returned was one of politics, not football, and it was one that his successor Carlo Ancelotti would be left to wrestle with without every appearing to fully resolve.

Once Adrian Adan had proven below below the required level, Mourinho recruited the more able Diego Lopez from Sevilla and in Ancelotti’s first season he persevered with the Galician in the league with Casillas getting the nod in cup games.

In his final season, Casillas returned to favour as Lopez departed for Milan but by now the footballing reasons to look elsewhere had become apparent.

When the time came last summer for Casillas to depart the club engaged in an ultimately fruitless attempt to sign the man who succeeded him this summer with the national team, David De Gea, but found within their ranks his replacement in the figure of Keylor Navas.

Navas has risen to the challenge, showing that the instincts that marked him out as arguably the league’s standout goalkeeper at Levante hadn’t been blunted by a season as back-up for Casillas.

As for Casillas himself, there have been ups and downs but he’s established himself as a popular figure at Porto.

There have been mistakes, chiefly when he misjudged a Willian free-kick during a victory against nemesis Mourinho’s Chelsea in September and during a defeat to Vitoria de Guimaraes in January, but his performance as his side claimed a first away win at Benfica in four years the following month is one that will live long in the memories of supporters.

Aside from being a big name arriving at a club where the big names are routinely movingly out, the Spaniard’s professionalism and dedication has made him a welcome addition in the dressing room. 

For Casillas, no longer being at the centre of a political storm has allowed to once again focus on the football.

Back at Madrid, whatever the club decides to do going forward between the sticks, it will no longer be picked apart by the sort of factionalism that overshadowed everything to do with Casillas during his final two and a half years at the club

Spanish Inquest: No Mour' to give

My Eircom SportsHub column

Joseph Sexton

It's hard to imagine that José Mourinho has faced a tougher week during his 12 years in the management game. Speculation about his position over the last fortnight had simmered away. Having delegated press conference duty to his deputy, Aitor Karanka, it fell to Florentino Pérez to bat away questions, insisting that the full term of his extension to 2016 would be served.

“We have the best manager in the world, yet he's had to endure unjust attacks and insults, even ones that cross the line and strike at his personal dignity. He's led us to the league and already this year the Super Cup, and has my gratitude”.

But there is no smoke without fire when the Madrid press openly question any Real manager's future, and the cup defeat away to Celta saw matters come to a head between Mourinho and his bete noire.

On Saturday, he was back on duty for the pre-match press conference. Not a particularly memorable one, but what was to follow was pure dynamite.

Antón Meana is a journalist with Radio Marca, and once the conference came to a close he was asked to step into the club's press office by one of their press chiefs to meet with the goalkeeping coach, Silvino Louro. After the Celta game, he intimated on air that his sources in the dressing room had told him that Louro was widely seen as Mourinho's 'spy' by the players.

When Meana entered, there was Mourinho alongside Louro. Meana offered his hand to Mourinho who refused it and instead began to berate him, 'shouting in thick Portuguese, which I couldn't understand properly', as he recounted in print on Sunday.

Meana tried to bat back, but Mourinho continued to rage. “Don't you dare question my honour... In the footballing world my people are top people but in the world of journalism, you're a piece of shit”.

Meana defended his sources, with Mourinho going through Louro's resume 'point by point'. Challenged to name his sources, he refused stating that although 'it's a matter of opinion rather than fact, I don't need to run it by them again because I trust them completely.'

“They tell me you're a real son of a bitch” continued Mourinho “and a bad person, but rather than take that as given I think something else. You're anti-Real, anti-Mourinho, and your 'questions' are all about stirring shit. As long as I'm manager here I'll continue to respect you, but once I'm gone you'll be just another Joe on the street”

The conversation went on over half an hour, with Mourinho continuing to impugn the sources. Perhaps most striking was his admission that that three of his own players were disposed to leaking negative news.

“Let's assume what you're saying is true - for me it isn't - but let's anyway; is this news? You take it as gospel? We've got 21 players who get on great with Silvino, me, all the staff, but then there's three black sheep trying to fuck the group. It's easy for you, you only have to go on the radio and toss out a few phrases to stir up all of this”

Meana initially agreed to keep the conversation private but many other journalists had overheard the ruckus. On Radio Onda Cero, he said that once he met those waiting outside the story had already entered the public domain for him, and one of the other panellists on the show confirmed he'd witnessed it all.

This strain with the press isn't new. While he may have had the English media eating out of his hand, his relationship in Italy swiftly grew confrontational, where he likened their criticisms to 'intellectual prostitution' at Inter.

That sense of him against them has only heightened in the Spanish capital, where those he's faced have proved similarly immune to his charms. There was last season's vow of silence during the run in, and one well-known Madrid based writer was only half kidding when he described the experience of dealing with the Special One as being 'terrifying' at times.

There's been the well-documented splits in the camp, where a bust up with Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas made the headlines in January. It's also long been reported that rival cliques have formed, leaving the Spanish & Portuguese speaking players at odds.

How much this has affected matters on the field is open to debate, but they've already dropped more points than in the whole of last season. They've also failed to maintain the staggering intensity and unity of purpose that marked their pursuit of the title last season.

That said, the challenge of maintaining such impossibly high standards also proved beyond Barcelona last term.

Then there's been their comic book inability to defend set pieces, which is impossible to square with our conceptions of Mourinho teams. Take your pick of any number, but Manucho netted two for Valladolid a couple of weeks back off the back of this defect and Espanyol's late equaliser on Sunday was Keystone Kops stuff.

Everywhere he's been, Mourinho has tried to pick fights and Madrid's been no different. Internally, he had Pérez's long-time lieutenant Jorge Valdano booted out, a man with a lot of friends among the press corps. Little wonder that they're going to town on him now, right down to sensationalising pictures of the players' seating arrangements at the club's Christmas do this week.

None of this is unusual. Plenty of pages need filling, and many copies sold. On Saturday they travel to Málaga, whose manager Manuel Pellegrini knows a thing or two about the brutal side of capital's press. Ever the gentleman, he's refused to twist the knife, even though Mourinho was more than happy to stick the boot into him when these sides met in April 2011.

“It's not for me to judge Mourinho. We're not taking the game like this, we're not preoccupied about what happens at Real. I'm very grateful to all the players I had when I was boss there because even though they knew I was on borrowed time by December we still had a great season”

Perhaps by now Mourinho is also a dead man walking. With the league gone and attention already on the Champions League and the obsession of claiming la décima, only a 10th European crown would give him the satisfaction of having the last laugh as he rides off to his next adventure.

Original Article here on Eircom SportsHub

Is David de Gea really targeting a move back to Spain?

Amidst rumours linking the goalkeeper with a move back to Spain, the Manchester United blog Stretty News asked me to sift through the matter to see if there was any truth in it.

Most of you by now will have heard the David de Gea to Real Madrid stories floating around. But with Iker Casillas on the Spanish side’s books, it’s probably safe to say that most of you are also scratching your heads  why they might be after United’s young keeper. You’re not alone.

The story seems to have originated in the dry, somewhat right-of-centre economics and financial daily La Confidencial last Friday. Hardly a prime source for sporting scoops; but equally not an organ given to spreading scurrilous transfer gossip.

The story appears largely founded upon the identity of De Gea’s representative- the super agent Jorge Mendes- who has the great and good from Falcao, Cristiano, and José Mourinho all the way down to Bébé on his books.

That’s hardly enough ground on which to float this story alone, given that the Portuguese has over 50 current players on his books. The reason it’s gotten traction has to do with the current goalkeeping situation at the Spanish champions.

It’s no secret that there’s been some friction between Mourinho and the Spain contingent within his squad, particularly Sergio Ramos and Casillas himself. Mourinho’s modus operandi is to build a strong bond in this squads, but at times he has found this duo frustratingly insubordinate.

Last January, matters came to a head on the training field following a Copa del Rey defeat against Barcelona. As Mourinho admonished Ramos for his set piece defending, he was confronted by the goalkeeper. Somehow, the conversation between all three made it into the public domain verbatim. Many had suspected such tensions existed, and now there appeared clear evidence.

It was said that either Mourinho or Casillas would be gone in the summer. In the end, this wasn’t the case as Real secured their 32nd league title in May.

It’s telling that whenever Mourinho has looked to make an example of his Spanish players, it’s Ramos who has been the fall guy. This was the case in September where the former Sevilla defender was dropped against Manchester City after the side lost to his former club at the weekend.

But Casillas is a different matter. The working class kid from Móstoles has taken the mantle of club icon, the very personification of madridismo from the legendary forward Raúl. When the fans look at San Iker, they see someone they can identify with a personal and emotional level. And at a club like Real Madrid, this matters.

While the 9 times European champions have always augmented their teams with the very best talent from abroad, ever since the 1950s, they’ve also had their ranks swelled by Spaniards, particularly those from the youth ranks. Casillas is the last player from the set up to establish himself in the first team.

This contrasts sharply with the success of Barcelona’s first team production line, and it’s a contrast that jars with the Madrid faithful. It’s not that their youth set up is broken; far from it. It continues to produce talented players, but these- some examples in the recent past include Juan Mata, Roberto Soldado, Samuel Eto’o, Álvaro Negredo and Javi García- tend to flourish elsewhere having had their path to the senior side blocked the club management’s chronic short-termism.

But there’e also the playing side of things. For the first time in a decade, questions were raised about Casillas’ form last spring. Given the frosty nature of that training ground encounter, it was said that Mourinho was looking elsewhere for a number 1.

One of the names mooted at the time was the Portugal keeper, Rui Patricio, of Sporting Clube. Certainly a talented young keeper, but equally not one in the same stratosphere as the Spain captain.

But even if Mourinho is a man not given to suffering challenges to his authority, he’s also pragmatic creature with finely honed political instincts. Having picked his fights at the club and won them- and in the process gaining a higher degree of personal control than any manager in the modern history of the club- he would be acutely aware that in any battle between him and the Casillas, he would come out worse off.

This brings us to another element mentioned in the article. In the summer, Mourinho fought hard to keep Casillas’ deputy Antonio Adán at the club. A talented graduate of the youth system who would hold down a spot at many other clubs, the 25 year old has only started 8 senior games. In the end, the promise of further Copa del Rey minutes convinced him to stay another year. But this is likely to be last for the former Spanish underage international.

So, on the one hand Mourinho needs a deputy. But, the story goes, Mourinho still seethes against Casillas, who he feels has gotten complacent. A little bit of competition would do no harm in keeping him on his toes.

But don’t worry, for this is where the logic of the article collapses under the weight of its own contradictions.

David de Gea, it notes, is unhappy at the current goalkeeping situation at Old Trafford. He’s fed up with having to share the shirt with Anders Lindegaard, and has made it know to Mendes that he would a favour a move to one of Spain’s big two, specifically Real.

De Gea is highly regarded in Spain, and widely expected him to eventually take over from Casillas in the national team. But if the competition with Lindegaard had irked him, why would he risk retarding his development by playing second fiddle to Casillas now at club level? Despite being a fixture in the side for thirteen seasons, Casillas is still only 31.

Manchester United have no incentive to sell, and certainly not for less than they shelled out to Atlético Madrid for his services. Why then next summer, at a time when the squad will most likely need surgery, would Real Madrid commit major funds to a part of the team that isn’t broken?

No matter which way you look at it, it simply doesn’t add up. Rather, it’s a case in point of the Spanish press putting two and two together and coming up five. Real Madrid are unlikely to making any moves for David de Gea, at least not now. There is probably more chance of cash-strapped Atlético finding the funds down the back of the sofa to bring him back to the Vicente Calderon.

It finishes off by focussing on some other options for Real Madrid. Chief amongst these is Roberto Jiménez, who all but single-handedly kept Real Zaragoza in the top flight last season. The murky move which brought there from Benfica for €8.5m was brokered by-wait for it- Jorge Mendes. Given the dire financial situation at the Aragonese club, who it is assumed have only the merest stake in his economic rights, he looks a more viable target.

As for David de Gea himself, those in the know have not reported any murmurings of discontent emanating from his camp about his rivalry with Lindegaard. Quite the opposite. The Spaniard had enjoyed his short time in England, where he feels he’s learned a lot already. The environment at Carrington is one that can only help him improve his game as he continues to progress.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE ON STRETTY NEWS

La Liga: Five reasons why Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid won the title

Joseph Sexton

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José Mourinho was tasked by Florentino Pérez in May 2010 to knock Barcelona off their perch. Last Wednesday, as the players held the Portuguese aloft at San Mamés, he had achieved that target. Real Madrid have now won 32 league titles in their glittering history. But few, if any, have come at the expense of a rival of such potency.  

That’s because few sides in the history of the game match up to the Catalans. To hoover up trophies as Barcelona have done under Pep Guardiola is something remarkable, and while many will focus on the style with which they achieved their success, less have looked at the hunger, the drive, that underpinned that. This year, Madrid’s hunger was insatiable, and this is why they are champions of Spain.

It’s been a bumpy ride for Mourinho. Discord within and without the camp have threatened to undermine the meringue challenge at key moments. Sometimes, internal grievances have received the most public of airings. At others, the vitriol of the press- many of the same Madrid-based ones who painted Mourinho as a saint before the bruising four game clásico series in April 2011- have latterly been queuing up to throw rocks.

At times, it seemed certain he would be departing at the end of this season. Few now doubt that he will stay. And if Madrid have bagged this title with considerable style, it is worth looking at some of the key factors behind their success

1. Benzema’s renaissance

José Mourinho had spent most of his first summer at Real moaning about the lack of strikers. When injury on the eve in that infamous 5-0 defeat at Camp Nou ruled Gonzalo Higuaín out for some 5 months, the cupboard was bare. Karim Benzema was a flagship Florentino Pérez signing, but the manager didn’t like the look of the young Frenchman. Nor was he impressed by his attitude. “When you don’t have a dog, sometimes you have to hunt with a cat”, he lamented. Rather than hunt with this cat, he signed Emanuel Adebayor on loan.

This season, Benzema has been a man reborn. Right from those two ferociously intense Supercopa clashes that opened the season, it was clear that he’d come back determined, and a few kilos lighter. Given his rival for the centre forward position’s numbers, supplanting Higuaín in the role is some achievement. His blend of finesse and physique has given defenders nightmares.

2. Sidelining Ricardo Carvalho

It might sound counterintuitive at first. For almost a decade now, Mourinho’s former Chelsea and Porto lieutenant had been one of the world’s top defenders- and one of the smartest. In his first season in Madrid, he had clearly been the top dog. But maybe time was catching up with.

Although initially an enforced move, moving Sergio Ramos to centre has made Real Madrid a better team. The Spain international may be guilty of positional lapses, but his athleticism allows Real to pressure much higher up the park than they could with Carvalho. Alongside Pepe, his aerial dominance has been a massive asset.

3. Attitude

Last year’s title was not lost in the clásicos- it was lost in defeats to lowly sides like Sporting and Osasuna, games where Real Madrid failed to score. Last September, the loss at Levante followed by a draw against Sporting suggested it might be more of the same again. Instead, they went on a run of wins extending all the way to the visit of Barcelona in December.

That clásico blew the title race wide open once more. Madrid’s capacity to respond would be everything.

They won their next ten games, as Barça shed further points.

Their ability to come back has also been a standout factor. Victories from losing positions against Rayo, Atlético, Mallorca, Athletic, Zaragoza, Levante, Sporting and Sevilla spoke of a side for whom that defeat was not an acceptable outcome. Real have beaten teams in a variety of ways this season, but it is this attitude that has helped them over the line.

4. Firepower

We’ve mentioned Benzema already. He now has 20 league goals. Despite his limited minutes, Higuaín has chipped in with 22. José Callejón has sprung 5 goals from the bench, many of them crucial in changing games. No full back has scored more than Marcelo. And only Lionel Messi has scored more than Cristiano Ronaldo’s 44. With David Villa injured, Barcelona have been overly dependent on Lionel Messi. Ronaldo may be equally totemic to his side, but it’s clear that his colleagues also know the way to goal. In all competitions, the trident of Ronaldo-Benzema-Higuaín have contributed a staggering total of 117 goals.

5 Put up- and... shut up

Just as in Italy, the press in Spain have been Mourinho’s bête noire. So charming and adept was he at pulling strings and setting the news agenda at Chelsea, it may be hard to fathom the antipathy that now exists between him and the media. But Milan, as Mourinho swiftly found out, is not England. And Real Madrid is a club like no other.

In his recent book, Graham Hunter illustrates just how badly Mourinho had misjudged matters a year ago. Puffed up by his side’s Copa del Rey final victory at the Mestalla the previous week, he went on the warpath against Barcelona’s coach ahead of the Champions League semi-final. Guardiola, a man so eloquent and dignified in his public persona that it almost seems painful for him at times, decided he’d had enough. The gloves were off. In a masterpiece of rhetoric, he responded to his rival’s jibes in the most forthright of manners.

More importantly, his team did the business on the pitch. For what good are words when you can’t back them up?

Ever since that moment sections of the Madrid-based press were out for Mourinho, and well he knew it. After all, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not all out to get you. Last weekend at the Santiago Bernabéu, Sid Lowe explained just how poisonous the relationship had become.

“It seems clear now that the initial agenda- at least from Marca- driven as ever some sections within the club, was to build José up as being the saviour. AS [the other principal Madrid sports daily], on the other hand, whose editor Alfredo Relaño has great admiration for this current Barça, always had a slightly different take. In the end, attending the post match briefings was joyless. At times, the prospect of dealing with Mourinho had become tense, to say the least. Sometimes, even the most innocuous of questions would draw a caustic and utterly dismissive response”. In the end, Mourinho chose to see agendas at play everywhere.

This is why the aftermath of their 1-1 draw at Villarreal marked a key turning point. For the second game in a row, Madrid had surrendered a lead to a late free kick. And not for the first time in recent weeks, they’d played well below par. Moreover- and at this point is worth noting Jorge Valdano’s words on Cadena SER that, if anyone had any right to be aggrieved, it was Villarreal- the officiating had infuriated Real. 

Fitness trainer, Rui Faría, had been sent to the stands in the first half. In the immediate aftermath of Villarreal’s equaliser, he was followed swiftly by Sergio Ramos, Mourinho himself, and Mesut Ozil of all people. Madrid had lost their heads; lost their papers, as the Spanish phrase goes. Their lead had been trimmed from 10 to 6 points. And their season was in danger of falling apart

Then, something unexpected happened. We waited for the denunciations of Mourinho. And waited.

In vain. For in his place came the number two, Aitor Karanka. The following weekend, the Basque former defender did the same. And every other week. In fact, outside of Champions League briefings, we’ve not heard from Mourinho since. Until, of course, last Wednesday. Mourinho had let himself down and been badly burned in his dealings with the press at the climax of last season. This year, he’d learned his lesson.

Sometimes it’s best to shut up. But you also have to front up.

Mourinho has done both.

You can follow Joseph @josephsbcn

This article originally appeared on STV Sport

El Clásico Preview

Never before has a silence been so deafening. In the last 10 days José Mourinho has been in a self-enforced clásico media blackout. Lack of substance has never stopped the Spanish media wheel spinning, of course. But what we’ve seen spun this week has, largely, been a shit on a stick.

 
You could sense the editors of Marca and Mundo Deportivo shuffling in desperation through whatever material they could get their hand on. Shock horror! New Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a Madridista, predicts Real will win 3-2! Not to outdone, the Catalan daily Sport delivered us the world exclusive that his Socialist predecessor, Zapatero – a Barça fan – reckoned the Champions would prevail.

 On Wednesday, the former Madrid stalwart, Guti- a man for whom the term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ must surely have been coined- popped up on the front page of AS looking like the offspring of some unholy union between Dennis Taylor and Martina Navratilova to proclaim a 3-1 victory for the meringue. It was all rather sombre, rather understated, rather… dull……...

Continue reading the full article here on Back Page Football

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Jose Mourinho can moan but Real can only blame themselves

Joseph Sexton rounds up the weekend's Spanish action and finds that small team beats big team is the only tale in town. 
Read the original article here on STV

Mourinho may moan but Real were undone by an impressive Levante side. Pic: © SNS Group

It is preposterous; ridiculous, even. It’s also shocking, but certainly no shock. But Spain, as they saying goes, ‘es diferente’. Nowhere does that ring truer than in football at the present moment.

We should be talking about many things here. What about newly-promoted Granada popping up to claim their first win of the season against Villarreal? What about last night’s stupefyingly entertaining late kick-off at Betis’ Villamarín cauldron? What about Roberto Soldado, who simply can’t stop scoring (even if one of the four he recorded on opening weekend ended up in his own net)?

No, instead we are left with one topic, one which dominates all the dailies, all the chatter on the airwaves today; big team loses to very small team. In most other leagues in the world this would, of course, be news. But not all the news. And certainly not on a weekend like this.

Real Madrid lost to the club with the smallest budget in the league by 1-0. Their opponents, Levante, made the smart move of exercising their option to buy Man City loanee Felipe Caicedo during the summer for €1m. They then sold him on to Lokomotiv Moscow for a five-fold profit. Last year, in a team that had the third best record of any club in the division after the winter break, Caicedo had the best goals per-shots on target ratio of any player in the league. By far.

They also lost their talented coach Luís García to Getafe. And, barring the odd aberration, the maulings being dished out by the big two to the good, the bad, and awful seemed to dictate that Real ought to win this. Even though this was exactly the sort of ground where points dropped had cost them last season’s title. If not a hammering of the sort Barcelona administered to a hapless Osasuna the night before, then at least three points.

Real did not start with a full strength side. But when you have a squad that would make even Manchester City’s look less favourable, both in depth and in talent, this can be no excuse.

Nor can José Mourinho’s tiresome and hypocritical branding of the opposing team as cheats who instigated Sami Khedira’s sending-off. Yes, the sending off is what turned this game. But Real weren’t looking too hot when the Germany midfielder got his marching orders for a second yellow.

The truth is that Real played poorly, and that they can only have themselves to blame; not UEFA, not UNICEF, not the ref. Not one bit. The match statistics bear this out. Leaving aside Real´s hoarding of possession, all else was pretty much equal; remarkably so. Shots, both on and off target; fouls. Right down the list. Except for the only one that matters of course, the final score. And the red card count, obviously.

Real played very badly but Levante played extremely well. Even against 11 men they were competitive. Their breakaway goal from Arouna Koné was a joy to behold. On loan from Sevilla, he’s unlikely to fill Caicedo’s boots. And their new coach, Juan Ignacio Martínez has arguably bigger shoes to fill. But in a league that is likely to be every bit as tight from the European spots down again this season, if not more so than last, they look well equipped to survive; and- who knows?- perhaps even thrive.

Barcelona won 8-0, as you may have heard. Next.

Roberto continues to excel in goal for Zaragoza; he was instrumental in their surprising 2-1 home victory over Espanyol yesterday. This is all the more remarkable given the fact the keeper, whose ill-starred season at Benfica made him a byword for goalkeeping ineptitude of the highest sort at Benfica season; not to mention that, on paper at least, Zaragoza look to be an absolutely awful side. His arrival, on loan, was a particularly murky third-party deal, involving a Dublin-based consortium with Jorge Mendes, Peter Kenyon and Pini Zahavi all on board. If he keeps playing this well, not many Zaragoza fans will care.

Roberto Soldado scored. Again. That’s 5 in 3 for him now this season; his record over the last 17 games is simply obscene. That was enough to see them defeat Sporting, leaving them top of the table on goal difference ahead of… Real Betis.

Real Betis who beat Athletic Bilbao by 3-2 in a game that defied common sense at times. Not just in Marcelo Bielsa’s bizarre positional selections; at least for those who followed El Loco’s remarkably successful stints in charge of the Chilean and Argentine national teams, that is nothing new. But the manner in which the home raced into a two goal lead was exhilarating, leaving Bilbao still looking like a team getting to grips with their new coach’s idiosyncratic footballing philosophy. They were pegged back seven minutes before the break before regaining their cushion with a penalty right on the stroke of it.

A flurry of second half cards saw Alavarez see red for Betis a quarter of an hour from the end, before being joined by Bilbao’s Amorebieta in stoppage team. Both before and in between, Bilbao looked like they might steamroller their hosts. But a Lopez penalty inside the final five minutes wasn’t enough, and although a lot of goodwill and patience still exists for the Argentine coach’s remoulding project of Athletic remains now, one point from nine means that doubts are already beginning to pierce the surface.

Follow Joseph Sexton on Twitter @josephsbcn

Results:
Granada 1-0 Villarreal
Mallorca 0-1 Málaga
Sporting 0-1 Valencia
Barcelona 8-0 Osasuna
Sevilla 1-0 Real Sociedad
Getafe 0-1 Rayo Vallecano
Zaragoza 2-1 Espanyol
Levante 1-0 Real Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Real Betis