La Liga results
Weekend round-up
GOOD DAY
Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi
Hands up everyone who had their cockles warmed when seeing that cheeky smile back on Cristiano RonaldoâÂÂs face after his World Cup woes with Portugal.
Now hands up everyone who had their cockles warmed when seeing that cheeky smile back on Leo MessiâÂÂs face after his World Cup woes with Argentina.
Did you see that, Florentino?
Angel Arizmendi
Two goals in two for the Zaragoza striker - and it should be three, but more on that later - means a pig-ignorant La Liga Loca has either been hopelessly wrong in its constant, childish attacks on the playing ability of this fine, fine footballer, or Arizmendi has been in a body swap with Gonzalo HiguaÃÂn.
The blog feels certain that the latter can be the only rational explanation or it may as well give up, right here, right now.
Valencia, Athletic Bilbao
Both sides have six points from six - the only two apart from Barça and Madrid â but they've managed it in two very different ways.
Valencia put Sevilla to the sword in round one and blew Valladolid away on Sunday with brilliant, sexy counterattacking football.
The only way the word âÂÂsexyâ can ever be used with Athletic Bilbao is that if 'Basque' football involves the underwear meaning of the word and 22 bikini models. Their opening game was a 1-0 win against Espanyol and Sunday evening produced the same result at Xerez, after an own-goal from a cross-blocking David Prieto.
It took us hours to research this pic
Luis Fabiano
Manchester United are reportedly interesting in the Sevilla strikerâÂÂs scoring services and it's easy to see why. A cracking seven days for âÂÂO FabulosoâÂÂ, who donked two goals against Argentina in BrazilâÂÂs World Cup qualifier and a bagged another brace a week later in a 4-1 win against the infinitely more difficult Zaragoza.
Tenerife
The Canary Island clubâÂÂs survival plan this season looks like grabbing what they can on their travels while really relying on opposition sides being completely freaked out by having to play their away games somewhere in the Atlantic â 17 degrees 46â 0â W / 28 degrees 40â 60â W, to be exact.
Osasuna had to travel 1326 miles for this game, only to come away with nowt except two players sent off for no good reason and an angry José Camacho. âÂÂWe are not an indisclipined team, but decisions are being taken against us too early,â grumbled the Osasuna boss.
Oscar Serrano
Whilst the Madridista press will cream their kecks for some time over KakáâÂÂs two assists against Espanyol, there will be little or no attention paid to players like RacingâÂÂs Oscar Serrano.
The midfielder worked tirelessly in RacingâÂÂs draw over Atlético Madrid - especially when the away side were down to 10 men - and scored his teamâÂÂs goal straight after AtléticoâÂÂs opener.
Barcelona, Real Madrid
Official La Liga Loca announcement: Following this summer's 200 million Euros net investment by these house-squishing, tree-felling Goliaths, wins over the likes of Getafe and Espanyol will be metherein with tiny grunts of acknowledgement rather than praising pats on the back or hearty handshakes.
BAD DAY
Atlético Madrid
Just two of AtletiâÂÂs fearsome foursome featured for the Rojiblancos on Saturday evening, with Simao and Kun starting the game and Simao and Forlán finishing it.
And despite the great work of José Jurado in supporting the solo striker, a central midfield pairing of Cleber Santana and Assunçao simply isnâÂÂt good enough for a side with top-four aspirations. Especially with poor Sinama once again stuck out on the right wing.
However, the off-the-field antics were more successful for the Atlético fans with a sizeable demonstration outside the ground. Their mood was not helped at all what happened on the pitch once they went in.
Espanyol
No points! No goals! And bottom of the table! ItâÂÂs welcome back to Espanyol and welcome back to Paul from Barcelona in his new Cornella home!
âÂÂBit difficult for me to give my usual genius tactical insight, because my seat is behind the goal and the view will take some getting used to as my old view was a weird 45-degree angle. But here's what I learned today.
1) Barça will win the league
2) Kaká (great passes for the goals) likes to referee the match and was allowed to by a ref who by WWE standards was biased.
3) The best two players on the pitch cost next to nothing: Granero and Verdu.
4) Espanyol lack match practice, which was obvious by the way they tired. Remember they've only played three games since the end of last season.
5) The pitch looked like the Horse of the Year show had been on it - and not because of the pile of manure on it either (see number 3). Being changed tomorrow.
6) Benzema looked about as interested as I am when I see an Adamcule post. (Uh oh! â LLL)
7) Everyone loves to hate Guti. He can play for us then. Looked good again today.âÂÂ
Zaragoza
Zaragoza boss Marcelino complained that âÂÂyou could see we were the away teamâ after his sideâÂÂs 4-1 defeat at Sevilla. And there was certainly some truth to his referee-directed gripe.
At 2-1, Arizmendi scored a perfectly good goal which was ruled offside probably because the referee felt that the concept of the Zaragoza forward managing two in a game was too far-fetched. Fair enough. But minutes later, Sevilla went up field to score a killer third goal.
Villarreal
A terrible start for the Yellow Submarine under an increasingly irate Ernesto Valverde. The sideâÂÂs first two games of the season has seem them dominate both in possession and in chances with just two 1-1 draws to show for it.
Life was certainly made more difficult on Sunday with an astonishing first half storm dumping torrents of water onto El Madrigal, but the Villarreal boss was only blaming his players. âÂÂàcannot believe that we lost two points today, just as it happened in our last game.âÂÂ
Xerez, AlmerÃÂa
The shape of things to come, perhaps, with both sides without a goal so far, this season.
---------------------------------------------
FourFourTwo.com: More to read...
La Liga Loca homeBlogs homeLatest Spain news
News homeInterviews homeForums home
FourFourTwo.com home
‘Arteta, Alonso, Emery, me… none of us were physical players – we needed the understanding of the game. That probably helped us move into management’: Premier League boss reveals reasons for natural career progression
‘England have the players to win the World Cup – it’ll be tough for Thomas Tuchel to do a bad job, with the squad he has at his disposal’ Former Three Lions winger backs new boss after gentle qualifying draw
