After another busy round of fixtures in Spain, here is a round-up of the league that includes 13 of the shortlist of players to win the Ballon D’or.

The Big Two

No La Liga conversation is complete without reference to Real Madrid and Barcelona, and this is where our review starts. Despite surprise package Levante topping the table for the first few rounds of La Liga, their bubble has now been burst somewhat and all attention is back on the top two. Real, under the Special One are in scintillating form, scoring for fun and managing to keep clean sheets to boot. Both Higuain and Benzema are on fire, giving Mourinho the dilemma of his life when picking his starting striker. Add to this the form of Ronaldo and the resurgence of one Kaka, and the fact that Real can now offer solutions when Xabi Alonso is effectively man marked during games, they are looking more than a match for Barca.

Of course they went into the first Classico and mauling one point ahead of their fierce rivals, so Barca will not be unduly worried. However, one thing that Real have in their locker this season is the ability to grind out a 1 – 0 win – something that was lacking last season during games where teams effectively parked the bus in front of their goal and closed down Alonso. This was shown on the weekend where Sociedad literally played with a back five at the Anoeta, yet Madrid scored early courtesy of Higuain and held on for a hard fought win. Not a vintage Madrid performance but one that shows how far they have come under Mourinho.

Regardless of Los Blancos topping the table by as point, most people’s favourites for the La Liga crown is reigning champions Barcelona, who looked back to their best at the Camp Nou, with Messi making a clear signal to fans and the media with his goal celebration after his hat trick – the prolific striker had failed to score in 3 games yet after being played in his preferred position down the centre not the dreaded wing for the game, with Barca putting a grand total of 5 past a hapless Mallorca.

The Surprise of the season

Most people thought that the team wearing blue and red stripes would be the ones to top la liga throughout the season, and they have been for the past few rounds – yet it was Levante not  Barcelona doing this. Levante have been everyone’s surprise of the season and have looked to be living some sort of footballing fairy tale thus far, before this weekend being unbeaten, even being able to claim a victory over Mourinho’s men at the Ciudad de Valencia.

In players such as Sergio Ballesteros, Valencia have a core of seasoned professionals who offer much more to the team than their average age would suggest, and new coach Martinez settling into life at Levante quicker than anyone could have expected.

However this weekend the bubble was somewhat burst with a 2 – 0 defeat at the hands of Osasuna. Several things were said after the game – Martinez praised his players for their unbeaten run, the media inevitably predicted a rapid slide down the table to mimic that of Espanyol last season and it was noted that due to their small squad who are mostly the wrong side of thirty, a couple of injuries and suspensions will have serious effects on the team from Valencia. Yet should they take the lead, especially at home, Levante are dogged in their defending and whilst they are probably not going to finish in the European places, they should manage to avoid the relegation fight they were involved in last tie round.

The best of the rest

Valencia – after a  slightly slow start, Valencia are picking up pace, and have been fast climbing the table. They now occupy 4^th place after the weekend’s victory and have their eye on the third place that is currently held by local rivals Levante. After losing their three best players – Villa, Silva and Mata over the last couple of seasons, huge amounts of credit has to be given to long-time coach – well for a league famous for waving white handkerchiefs at Managers, being at the helm since 2008 is a long time – Unai Emery, who has weathered all of this and still managed to keep Valencia widely viewed as the ‘best of the rest’.

Sevilla – Currently sitting in 5^th place, there is now a gap opening up between the top four and the rest after a shock victory for Granada at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. In a season full of surprises, this can be put down to a bad day at the office for Sevilla who next up face  a flailing Mallorca side and will expect to bounce back and take all three points.

Atletico Madrid – one side who expect to e doing much better are the second best team in Madrid, Atletico, who fully expect to be sat in the top four. However, after a poor start to the season they sit 10^th, with a sizeable gap between themselves and the champion’s league places. After a good victory against Zaragoza, Atletico will be looking to this as a kick-start to their season.  With few goals scored this season and fan protests calling for Aragonez to return, the pressure on Gregorio Manzano has been alleviated slightly, yet improvements are vital.

Malaga – the Andalucians were the team that, after a huge influx of money then players, not to mention coach Manuel Pellagrini were everyone’s favourites to break into the top four this season. However this, so far, has not come to pass, and Malaga have been struggling, and were so lucky against Espanyol receiving a penalty for a very dubious handball and do not seem to be gelling quite in the way they should be.

The relegation Battle

Getafe sit rock bottom and after a heavy loss last weekend things look no brighter with local rivals Atletico up next. A shock victory for Granada gave them much needed points, yet the newly promoted Andalucians need to improve their form and fast if they don’t want to go straight back down.  The final club to occupy a spot in the bottom 3 is Racing, and the victory by a single goal over Betis cannot be underestimated in importance. Hector Cuper and his team will be looking to now climb the table, starting with the away tie at Granada next round.

Whilst Betis and Rayo have made decent starts, only 4 points separate both these promoted sides from the relegation zones, and they are still in danger and will be looking over their shoulders until a real gap is formed.

Villarreal – after a vital 2 – 0 win over Rayo this weekend, despite the missed penalty from skipper Marcos Senna, the yellow submarines have shot up the table and out of the relegation zone to 13^th.  With an European campaign still to worry about, not to mention keeping their head above the relegation zone, Garrido has his work cut out for him.

The bottom half of the table is so tight, with only 5 points separating rock bottom Getafe and 11^th placed Rayo, so anyone who has a poor run of form or can piece together a run of victories can drastically change their fortunes so early on in the season.

Game of Next round –  Levante v Valencia

3^rd play host to 4^th in a real test of Levante’s credentials. A must see.

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The closest to a shock was at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan were third placed Sevilla grinded out a hard-fought win against a struggling Villarreal side who deserved at least a point. Sevilla’s usual attacking edge had been replaced by what looked like fatigue and Villarreal were on hand to dominate proceedings with their better energy and enthusiasm. Despite the performances that were to come, Sevilla struck first in this clash as Luis Fabiano gave them an early 9th minute lead but Robert Pires levelled on the half hour mark and then Villarreal took a shock lead through David Fuster an hour into the game. The lead didn’t last long as Sevilla woke up long enough to fight back, headers from Fabiano and Freddie Kanoute giving them two goals in five minutes and, despite furious Villarreal pressure, Sevilla held on for a priceless, yet undeserved, win. Sevilla remain third with the result whilst Villarreal sit just two points above the relegation zone in 16th.

The most-anticipated game of the weekend meanwhile was the Madrid derby at the Vicente Calderon with many wondering if Atletico could get past their bad form to get a result against the mighty Real. The hype overshadows the reality of how predictable the winner of this game will be – Atletico haven’t beaten Real in ten years now and their performances in the derby always seem to be below par. This game was no exception as the visitors flew into a three-goal lead courtesy of strikes from Kaka, Marcelo and Gonzalo Higuain. Atletico only managed to look a real threat afterwards once Sergio Ramos had been sent off and then goals by Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero set up a grandstand last ten minutes which saw Iker Casillas make a fine save to deny Aguero a late equaliser. Real are 2nd whilst Atletico sit all the way down in 18th.

Equally predictable was the game at the Camp Nou where Barcelona eased their way to victory over Mallorca. Pep Guardiola opted to start the game with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Leo Messi all on the bench and his decisions seemed warranted as Messi’s deputy Pedro proved the star of the game, scoring twice to help Barca to a 4 – 2 victory alongside a rare headed goal from Thierry Henry – his first goal of the season – and a late penalty from substitute Messi. Mallorca’s consolations came from Jose Nunes and Alhassane Keita but the Balearic Islanders never looked capable of dealing with the champions attacking prowess. Barca remain top by one point whilst Mallorca drop to sixth.

Fourth placed Valencia eased to victory also, making the most of terrible defending to overcome recently promoted Zaragoza 3 – 1 at the Mestalla. Highly rated Juan Mata gave Valencia the lead and they didn’t look back with the deadly David Villa and energetic Pablo Hernandez increasing their lead before the break. Abel Aguilar scored for Zaragoza in the 65th minute who slip to 13th in the league.

High-flying Deportivo continued their impressive season, remaining just two points behind 4th placed Valencia with a 2 – 0 win at Getafe, despite being reduced to 9 men by the end. Mista’s header gave the visitors the lead but Riki was given his marching orders in the 25th minute for a second yellow card which put Depor’s position in question. They managed to hold off the Getafe attempts though and doubled their lead just before the hour through former Barca-target Filipe Luis. Not too long after Sergio was given a second yellow card which reduced Depor to 9 men but Getafe couldn’t find a way through and suffer defeat to a team with 10 men or less for the second time in a week following their defeat to Real Madrid last week. Getafe are 12th in the league.

Malaga remain bottom of the table following a 2 – 2 draw at Tenerife in a game which saw terrible defending from both sides, a weakness that is perhaps to blame for the poor positions the two clubs are currently holding. Tenerife raced into a two goal lead through strikes from on-loan duo Roman Martinez and Alejandro Alfaro but Malaga showed good fighting spirit to get back on level terms, Edinho pulling one back and youngster Javi Lopez equalising with just 13 minutes left to go. Tenerife are 15th, three points above the drop zone but both clubs will need to improve defensively if they are to stay in the division.

Xerez occupy the other position in the relegation zone, their weekend proving uneventful as they played out a dour goalless draw at 14th placed Valladolid. The home team were devoid of ideas and the visitors didn’t look good enough and thus they were both cancelled out in a borefest.

Meanwhile there was a clash between two high-flyers at El Molinon as Sporting Gijon hosted Espanyol. A third minute goal by Mate Bilic gave the hosts the lead and they held on despite a number of chances in the first half for Espanyol with the visitors’ Jose Callejon missing two fantastic chances. Sporting then showed their ability in the second half by controlling the flow of play and didn’t look like relinquishing their lead. Sporting sit surprisingly high up in the table in 7th whilst Espanyol are three points and two places below in 9th.

Sandwiched between those two sides are Athletic Bilbao who visited El Sardinero to take on struggling Racing Santander. Calls for the head of Racing coach Juan Carlos Mandia were heard as the hosts fell to Carlos Gurpegi’s header and Andoni Iraola’s penalty. Racing, a side who usually occupy a comfortable mid-table position, are in a bad patch and, sitting in 17th, are level on points with Atletico Madrid who occupy a relegation spot. Things need to improve immediately or Mandia will undoubtedly get the sack.

In the weekend’s other game Almeria and Osasuna, two distinctly mid-table teams, saw their result decided by an early goal and a late goal. Osasuna’s Josetxo turned the ball into his own net under 2 minutes into the game and striker Kalu Uche netted a late second against a side who looked lacking in ideas and all over the place. It was Osasuna’s worst performance of the season so far but they remain in 10th with Almeria now jut behind them in 11th.

Full weekend results:

Almeria: 2 Osasuna: 0

Atletico Madrid: 2 Real Madrid: 3

Barcelona: 4 Mallorca: 2

Getafe: 0 Deportivo: 2

Racing: 0 Athletic: 2

Sevilla: 3 Villarreal: 2

Sporting: 1 Espanyol: 0

Tenerife: 2 Malaga: 2

Valencia: 3 Zaragoza: 1

Valladolid: 0 Xerez: 0