Weekend results: Barcelona 1-0 Espanyol, Valencia 2-3 Real Madrid, Sporting 0-1 Sevilla, Atletico Madrid 1-2 Villarreal, Almeria 1-1 Deportivo La Coruna, Getafe 2-1 Tenerife, Osasuna 0-1 Mallorca, Racing 3-2 Xerez, Valladolid 1-1 Malaga, Zaragoza 1-2 Athletic Bilbao.
Good Day
Madridista Conspiracy Theories
As soon as Xavi tumbled to the ground in the Camp Nou on Saturday night having fallen victim to nothing more sinister than his own bootlaces, the sporting hacks in Capital City must have been jumping up and down on their desks in joy like chimps at the chance to suggest that Barça had bought their victory in the Camp Nou clash.
Cunningly passing over a dramatic penalty-producing tumble from Cristiano Ronaldo the previous week, both Marca and AS used the same âÂÂjokeâ to suggest that referee Iturralde González was âÂÂMessi for the dayâ in the Argentinean playerâÂÂs absence.
Sadly, the response was equally predictable in the Catalan camp, with their journalists either contractually obliged or under horrendous duress to talk utter nonsense in the face of the facts that Xavi simply fell on his Catalan arse to win his penalty.
âÂÂIturralde was correct on this occasion, although you can understand the Espanyol anger,â was the response from Mundo DeportivoâÂÂs Santi Nolla, once his knackers had been put into a vice by Joan Laporta.
Meanwhile, it was thumbscrews that did the job for SportâÂÂs José Luis Carazo, who yelps that âÂÂit was a penalty! Baena pulled on XaviâÂÂs shirt which made him fall to the floor.âÂÂ
Gonzalo HiguaÃÂn
With Florentino Pérez being ludicrously childish, it probably annoys the heck out of the Real Madrid president that it is a Ramón Calderón signing that is the proper player of the season so far for the Castle Greyskull club.
And Florentino being fed-up can only be a very good thing.
Having being pushed to the sidelines at the start of the campaign, the Argentinean forward has now scored eight in eight in la Liga, the last two coming in MadridâÂÂs admittedly impressive 3-2 win in Mestalla against Valencia.
The undrop-ability of HiguaÃÂn and an improved display from Karim Benzema means that it will continue to be a bad day for super sub Raúl.
However, the Madrid captain still has his sycophantic support in the shape of MarcaâÂÂs Roberto Gómez, who attacked the Valencia crowd on Saturday night.
âÂÂRaúl returned and he deserves it. But above all, he deserves the respect of everyone, including the Valencia supporters who greeted him with unjustified boos and jeers.âÂÂ
Ezequiel Garay
âÂÂIâÂÂve no idea how I scored it. I almost didnâÂÂt see it go in,â admitted the scorer of MadridâÂÂs winner in Mestalla.
Iker Muniain
There is a new challenger in town to BarcelonaâÂÂs âÂÂmmm, we produce all our own players and are successfulâ insufferable smugness title.
And thatâÂÂs Athletic Bilbao.
The Basque clubâÂÂs two strikes in the 2-1 win over Zaragoza - in an awful game, by the way - came from their cantera in the form of Susaeta and San José.
However, both were created by the most promising young talent in la Liga - the Bojan curse, perhaps - Iker Muniain.
The player who will be turning 17 this weekend celebrated the signing of a seven-year contract with the club and a goal last weekend with two assists.
However, AS note that âÂÂthe future star of Spanish football still needs a driver to get him to the training ground.âÂÂ
Mallorca
âÂÂThey should make a statue of Gregorio Manzano,â claim AS as Mallorca claimed their first away win of the season at Osasuna, that moves them into fifth with an astonishing 27 points.
Málaga
A point at Valladolid for Málaga in a 1-1 draw is just fine for the struggling Southern side, but it could have been a lot better had it not been for some insanely poor finishing.
And the blog is looking at you Mr Obinna.
Racing Santander
Almost in the Bad Day section having suffered the embarrassment of conceding two against Xerez in SundayâÂÂs win, but back-to-back victories for the Cantabrian club sees Racing out of the relegation zone and into 15th.
Juan AlbÃÂn
La Liga Loca has failed to see why a whole gaggle of clubs - mainly in Italy - would be interested in purchasing the Getafe forward, as most of his performances for the Coliseum club have been fairly indifferent.
However, the Uruguayan stepped up against Tenerife on Sunday and filled Roberto SoldadoâÂÂs hole - metaphorically speaking - with two goals to move Getafe into 8th and halfway to safety with 21 points.
âÂÂWe saw the best version of AlbÃÂn today,â says Getafe manager Michel after a close encounter.
David Fuster
In a topic that La Liga Loca may develop later in the week, if it can muster the energy required, one of the themes of this season in Spain has been young, talented strikers coming to the fore.
Another one of these prepubescent Primeristas is VillarrealâÂÂs David Fuster, who rattled AtléticoâÂÂs cage three times in the opening seven minutes before popping up with his sideâÂÂs opener in the 2-1 win at the Vicente Calderón.
Sevilla
The Andalusian side are now in grinding rather than growling mode as they stumble towards the Christmas break, but pulled off a handy 1-0 win away at Sporting on Sunday night to move them back into third.
Bad Day
Atlético Madrid
Now that was funny.
Having got to the 91st minute mark holding a thoroughly undeserved 1-1 draw against Villarreal, Atleti decided that justice had to be done and allowed Joseba Llorente to rise like a half-hearted salmon to grab a winner for the visitors.
In a game where you could have sworn Diego Forlán wasnâÂÂt playing despite his name being on the team-sheet, Atlético were nowhere and so unrelentingly awful that Sport have penned an editorial simply called âÂÂNow what?âÂÂ
Before the match, Quique Sánchez Flores warned that Atleti had far from made a full recovery and he was quite right to do so.
âÂÂItâÂÂs not easy to play at the Calderón,râ sighed the manager after the defeat. âÂÂThe fans are tired, fed up and impatient.âÂÂ
And so is Mr President too, with news that Enrique Cerezo spent half-an-hour in the dressing room to âÂÂdemand answers.âÂÂ
La Liga Loca doubts that the rojiblanco plank even knew what the questions were.
Pepe
Oh dear. A season and potentially World Cup-ending cruciate ligament injury was the reward for PepeâÂÂs efforts in Mestalla, on Saturday night.
âÂÂAn injury that no-one wanted to see,â wrote a sympathetic Sport.
Espanyol
To be fair, it wasnâÂÂt just Madridista hacks who were jumping up and down like imbeciles at XaviâÂÂs spectacular tumble in the Catalan derby - La Liga Loca was too at the thought at some fierce Perico fury from Paul from Barcelona.
âÂÂLike the Spanish bloke who called the police because the jazz concert he was at wasn't âÂÂjazzyâ enough, I too feel I should call the cops after witnessing a robbery on Saturday night.
It should be a slam dunk as there were 80,000 other witnesses too.
What a shambles football is becoming. My favourite quote comes from the big fraud himself, Xavi.
"It was a clear penalty, it's that you didn't see it". Indeed.
Needless to say, the ref then sent off Baena in the tunnel for telling him that he should "watch it again on TV." Genius
Some things I learned on Saturday night.
1) That Barça without Messi are there for the taking.
2) Pep is becoming the new Wenger. "I didn't see it, the player told me... and I believe him".... ad nauseum.
3) Ibra isn't as hard as Rongaclia. Fantastic touches but well lazy.
4) Nico Pareja was the best player on the pitch.
5) Espanyol played a million times better than last week and once everyone is back fit and healthy we'll be fine.
6) Message to other teams. Don't roll over and lie down. Get amongst them. In the words of Clive Dunn "They don't like it up âÂÂem".
I leave the last word to the normally not-so-bright Luis GarcÃÂa who said "Barça don't have to win every time". Try telling that to the refs, Luis.âÂÂ
Paul, Barcelona
Marcelino
The fans didnâÂÂt want it. The players didnâÂÂt want it. But the president and owner, who apparently both know best, did.
So thatâÂÂs why Marcelino, the man who gave up a perfectly good job at Racing Santander to help Zaragoza out of la Segunda, has been sacked after just 14 league games in charge.
A club that La Liga Loca always used to quite like has now joined Betis on the blog hit-list. Along with Barça, Real Madrid, Atlético, Valencia, Depor.....
Xerez
The bottom-hugging team have already lost their Round 15 game against Barcelona even before the matchday begins.
ThatâÂÂs how bad Xerez are this season.
--------------------------------------------
FourFourTwo.com: More to read...
Stats:La Liga results, fixtures & table
La Liga Loca homeBlogs homeLatest Spain news
News homeInterviews homeForums home
FourFourTwo.com home
Follow La Liga Loca on Twitter
Follow FFT.com on Twitter
