Extremely interesting La Liga! Three teams on top, Atlético within striking distance. Barcelona loses out on the Conference League

La Liga offers an extremely interesting spectacle this year. Previously, the top Spanish competition was only about two or even three teams, but this season the top of the table is very crowded.

For many years, the only question in Spain was whether Real Madrid or Barcelona would win the title. In the last decade, Diego Simeone and his Atlético Madrid have twice thrown pitchforks into the celebrations of the two giants, but this year has been a different story.

Going into the national break, the table looks like this:

Real Sociedad is the leader of the table. Real Madrid and Sevilla have a game to spare, but the great work of the San Sebastian team must be appreciated. Imanol Alguacil’s charges have won 8 matches, drawn four and lost only once. That came in the first round against Barcelona, since then La Real have kept an impressive run of 12 matches without defeat.

The main driving force behind the Basque club is captain Mikel Oayrzabal. the 24 year old winger has scored 6 goals and added 1 assist in 8 games, while being out of action since mid-October. Still, he is the club’s top scorer. The striker Alexander Isak has been playing well, Adnan Januzaj has come back to life, and Manchester City legend David Silva has been playing his traditional magic.

So far, Real Madrid have been making their fans quite happy. This is not so much due to results as it is to performances. Carlo Ancelotti’s charges are playing in a very handsome style, scoring a lot of goals, have the best attack in the league and are scoring beautiful goals.

Of the pedalling squad, two stars shine the brightest, one French and one Brazilian. Karim Benzema boasts an impressive 10+7 record, while Vinicius Junior has 7 goals and 2 assists. Together they have thus scored 17 goals out of the 28 scored by the whole team. By all accounts, the White Ballet is the biggest contender for the title.

Sevilla continues the trend set last year. It stuck with the big three until the very end, where they eventually fell away. This year, however, the cell from the south of Spain continues its great performances and especially the results. The Andalusians have the same number of points as Real Madrid, one behind leaders Sociedad and with a game to spare.

Coach Julen Lopetegui has slightly changed the image of Sevilla’s game. The latter has always been a very offensive team, its matches often ending in shootouts. However, the former goalkeeper relies on a solid defensive game, which Sevilla has the best in the league, getting only 7 goals in 12 games.

This past weekend, Sevilla’s players provided the fans with the most joy they could. In El Gran Derbi, they beat their hated rival Betis 2-0 on their field, halting the otherwise great form of the club from the green part of Seville.

Atlético Madrid are the defending champions, but so far Diego Simeone hasn’t found the ideal recipe to manage matches at all costs like he did last season. Out of the last 5 games, the Colchoneros have drawn 3 times, the biggest stab in the back came at the weekend against Valencia when Atlético were still leading 3-1 in the 92nd minute, but in the end they only drew 3-3.

The attacking lines led by Suárez, Griezmann and Correa are performing above standard, Atlético, along with Sevilla, have the second best attack in the league. However, the defensive line is currently behind expectations for a traditionally strong Atlético defensively. Jan Oblak has already fished 13 goals out of the net, with Sevilla, Bilbao, Sociedad, Villarreal, as well as Real Madrid and Espanyol getting fewer goals. The Rojiblancos have regularly dominated this statistic.

The biggest disappointment of this season is definitely Barcelona. It was expected that after the departure of Lionel Messi there would be a lighter fall, but nobody expected it to be of this magnitude. The Blaugranas are up to an ignominious 9th place in the table, 3 points behind 6th placed Rayo Vallecano, who hold the Conference League position.

Barcelona had a big collapse at the weekend, leading 3-0 at half-time at Estadio Ballaídos. Celta Vigo, however, came back in the second half and equalised at 3-3. This was not the only setback for the Catalans, as they lost El Clásico to the hated Real Madrid, and were not even able to beat Atlético Madrid. They also lost to Raya Vallecana and had to endure draws with Granada, Cadiz and Levante. Overall, Barcelona has a crazy record of 4 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses.

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