Six matchdays to go - the mists are clearing
The last couple of matchdays have blown through LaLiga like a strong breeze, clearing away the fog and opening up the picture in a new dazzling clarity – at least for the moment. The title race now has a clear leader in Real Madrid, and Barcelona are chasing with the cadence of a drowsy tortoise. At the other end of the table, things look even clearer. Three clubs have been cast adrift, as those above pull up the safety ladder and wave goodbye. Even Real Betis, despite their best efforts to the contrary, appear to be safe.
Barça’s stumbling form continues. A single goal triumph over Athletic Club in Matchday 31 was massively unconvincing, and had it not been for Rakitic arriving from the bench to snaffle the winning goal on 71 minutes, it could have been so much worse. In fact, it was, a few days later when goals from Luis Suárez twice had the Catalans in front, but each time, lowly Celta pulled things back. The second equaliser at Balaidos, scored by Aspas, revived dread echoes for the Cules of Raul Tamuda’s goal for Espanyol that gift-wrapped and delivered the title to Madrid back in 2007. AS certainly thought so. Their front page the following day bellowed ‘Tamudazo de Aspas.’
It’s difficult to see where Los Blancos are going to drop the necessary points to even allow Barcelona a sniff at catching them now and remember that, with the head-tohead favouring Zidane’s team, the Blaugrana would need to have a clear points advantage to prevail. The victory away to Espanyol was the very stuff of champions-elect. A potentially difficult game against a team fighting for its life, was settled when Benzema decided to channel his inner Guti and provide a back-heel nutmeg assist for the excellent Casemiro to score the deciding goal.
The remaining games at the Bernabeu against Getafe, Alavés and Villareal look comfortable enough and, of the away fixtures, perhaps Athletic Club and, to a lesser extent, Granada may be more troublesome, Madrid are hardly likely to fall twice, and the final fixture, away to what will surely be the already relegated Leganés, will only be part of a victory lap of the country. Barcelona’s fixtures aren’t too daunting either, but if they fail to collect all three points against Atlético Madrid, it’ll be time to parcel up the LaLiga trophy and pass it to los correos to deliver. To offer a little perspective, in their key away games this season, when the chips were down, they have lost to Valencia, Athletic Club and Real Madrid, and merely shared the spoils with Napoli, Sevilla and Celta. Are you confident of a dramatic upswing in form to put any kind of pressure on Real Madrid? No, nor me.
As mentioned in these pages last week, the decision to oust Valverde was a massive error, compounded by the appointment of Quique Setién. To be honest, there’s surely more chance of me sitting in the coach’s chair at the Camp Nou next season than the current incumbent. You can already hear the calls going out to Qatar. “Xava, si us plau, torna a casa i salva'ns!” If I was Señor Hernandez, and minded to answer the siren call of the Catalans, I’d want to be sure that there’s a willingness, and financial resources, to rebuild a team in desperate need of a major overhaul before committing. Financial jiggery-pokery transfers like the Arthur/ Pjanic deal may massage the accountants’ furrowed brows, but it hardly advances things on the pitch.
Down among those waiting for the trap door to open, there’s now a sense of inevitability about their fate. Mallorca, Espanyol and Leganés are at least eight points adrift of safety and as each are averaging much less than a point per game, the six fixtures remaining are surely insufficient to offer even the slightest glimmer of hope. Each may have their own hard luck story, and it’s difficult not to sympathise with a Leganés team plundered of their top scorer, and then suffering an injury to his replacement.
There’s also a measure of sympathy due to Mallorca who seem to have hit a bad run at precisely the wrong time of the season. The only point they gained in their last five games was a 1-1 draw with Leganés. With the reaming home games against Celta Vigo, Levante and Granada, there’s just an outside chance that they could make a late dash for freedom, especially if they prevail in the first of those fixtures.
As mountains to climb go though, this is on a par with scaling Everest with an elephant on your back.
Espanyol seems to be less a story of ill fortune, than one of ill management.
After dispensing with the services of Abelardo, the club have now been compelled to pay off no less than three different coaches in the same season, each time lurching between different styles of play, spent around €40m in the January transfer window, and are bottom of the table.
Their loss to Betis, has probably both sealed their fate, and thrown the Andalusian club the lifeline they desperately needed. In the same breath, let’s also give it large to little Eibar. The Basque club with the tiny stadium, continue to confound, and successive wins over Valencia and then away to Granada, have all but assured the club of top tier football once more.
Dipping into the ever-perilous pit of VAR discussion, there was a controversial moment in the Atleti game against Alavés in matchday 32. A stumbling challenge seemed to be fairly innocuous as Diego Costa lost the ball. After review however, a penalty was awarded.
Now, for those who rant about VAR, and say officials should make decisions, please remember this.
All that system can do is offer a chance to review evidence. It’s still an official that makes the final call. By the way, three successive single goal victories after the aberration of that 0-5 triumph in Pamplona, and all is fine again in the world El Cholo.