La Liga Table 2015: Updated Standings Following Matchday 17 Results

Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid started 2015 in a manner that they won't mean to go on, losing their first La Liga fixture of the year at Valencia and falling within touching distance of their pursuers.

Barcelona could have taken top spot on their own this weekend were it not for their own defeat on Sunday, losing 1-0 at Real Sociedad to remain just a point off Los Merengues.

Read on for a breakdown of all the latest scores from the Spanish top flight, along with a look at the standings after Matchday 17 brought with it the resumption of La Liga drama.

Position	Club	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Real Madrid	16	13	0	3	56	15	41	39
2	Barcelona	17	12	2	3	41	8	33	38
3	Atletico Madrid	17	12	2	3	34	15	19	38
4	Valencia	17	10	4	3	31	14	17	34
5	Sevilla	16	10	3	3	26	17	9	33
6	Villarreal	17	9	4	4	29	16	13	31
7	Malaga	17	9	3	5	21	17	4	30
8	Eibar	17	6	5	6	21	23	-2	23
9	Celta Vigo	17	5	5	7	17	19	-2	20
10	Espanyol	17	5	5	7	21	26	-5	20
11	Rayo Vallecano	17	6	2	9	19	32	-13	20
12	Athletic Bilbao	17	5	4	8	14	21	-7	19
13	Real Sociedad	17	4	6	7	18	22	-4	18
14	Getafe	17	4	5	8	13	22	-9	17
15	Almeria	17	4	4	9	15	25	-10	16
16	Deportivo La Coruna	17	4	4	9	14	27	-13	16
17	Levante	17	3	6	8	13	33	-20	15
18	Cordoba	17	2	8	7	13	27	-14	14
19	Granada	17	2	7	8	10	26	-18	13
20	Elche	17	2	5	10	15	34	-19	11

Date	Result
Saturday, Jan. 3	Atletico Madrid 3-1 Levante
Saturday, Jan. 3	Sevilla 1-0 Celta Vigo
Saturday, Jan. 3	Elche 2-2 Villarreal
Saturday, Jan. 3	Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 Athletic Bilbao
Saturday, Jan. 3	Malaga 1-2 Almeria
Sunday, Jan. 4	Getafe 1-2 Rayo Vallecano
Sunday, Jan. 4	Valencia 2-1 Real Madrid
Sunday, Jan. 4	Espanyol 1-2 Eibar
Sunday, Jan. 4	Real Sociedad 1-0 Barcelona
Monday, Jan. 5	Cordoba 2-0 Granada

Sunday Recap 

Real's 2-1 loss at the hands of Valencia on Sunday brought an end to Los Merengues' 22-match winning streak, just as the club looked so capable of breaking Coritiba's world record of 22 victories on the trot.

According to Ben Hayward of Goal.com, Real's friendly defeat to Milan just days earlier lent its hand in the loss, with the team taking on too many fixtures and suffering as a result:

Real started strongly enough at the Mestalla after Cristiano Ronaldo tucked away a 14th-minute penalty, but second-half goals from Antonio Barragan and Man of the Match Nicolas Otamendi sealed all three points for Los Che.

Spanish writer Sergi Dominguez's cites Peter Lim's takeover of Valencia as being the reason behind their revival this season, predicting the club will soon be competing far more fiercely with the continental big guns:

If that result was seen as an upset, Barca's 1-0 loss at the Anoeta was an even greater shock, not only preventing the Blaugrana from leapfrogging Real into first place but remaining a point behind in second.

It took La Real just two minutes to force Jordi Alba into an own goal for the fixture's sole score, but Spanish writer Sergi Dominguez wasn't over-impressed with the hosts' performance:

The victory extends Sociedad's unbeaten league run at home against Barca to five matches, although it was far from an easy victory as Barcelona enjoyed just under 70 percent possession, per WhoScored.com.

It marks arguably the best win of David Moyes' career to date and certainly the best in his La Liga tenure so far, with ESPN's John Brewin noting how far the failed Manchester United boss has come in the past 12 months:

Of La Liga's four Sunday fixtures, two others also finished 2-1 as Espanyol lost at home to Eibar and Rayo Vallecano took a win from their trip to Getafe.

Manu del Moral and Federico Piovaccari netted goals for Eibar within three minutes of one another, where even Felipe Caicedo's late consolation for the hosts couldn't stop the visitors extending their unbeaten away run to three games.

Getafe's home defeat was just as discouraging. The Madrid outfit opened the scoring after just three minutes through Alvaro Vazquez, but Josabed and Raul Baena bagged for Rayo to lift Paco's men into 10th place.

Saturday Recap

Antoine Griezmann brought his recent scoring record up to five goals in two games after netting a brace for Atletico Madrid in their 3-1 victory over Levante on Saturday.

The win pulls Los Rojiblancos to within just a point of leaders Real, albeit having played two more matches than Los Merengues, but Griezmann's increasing threat on goal is another pleasing development for Diego Simeone.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Newly returned Fernando Torres watched on from the stands as the Frenchman contributed the kind of scoring display he'll soon be hoping to replicate at the Vicente Calderon, Diego Godin providing Atleti's third.

Griezmann initially struggled at Atletico after moving from Real Sociedad last summer, but Simeone agrees that his forward is now a superior asset, per Inside La Liga:

Sevilla also managed to claim a win on home soil this weekend after handing Celta Vigo a 1-0 beating, a fixture from which the visitors looked capable of taking a point at times.

Celta's fight was especially impressive after Carles Planas was shown a straight red in the 21st minute, but WhoScored.com show the away side still managed to assert themselves on Sevilla's goal:

In the end, Nico Pareja's free kick proved decisive, though, and the Bathtubs extend their unbeaten record to five games across all competitions.

Villarreal were slightly disappointed to drop very attainable points at bottom side Elche, falling victim to complacency after establishing a substantial lead early on.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Luciano Vietto and Ikechukwu Uche put the visitors 2-0 up inside 17 minutes, but Jonathas and Victor Rodriguez bagged in similarly swift fashion for the hosts to draw level before half time, with no more goals in the second period.

Later on Saturday, Almeria and Deportivo La Coruna were each made to fight for upset wins over Malaga and Athletic Bilbao, respectively, Tomer Hemed giving the former their breakthrough, per Matchbook.com:

Malaga's Samuel equalised on 73 minutes, but it took Hemed just another three minutes to restore the lead at 2-1, this time from the penalty spot.

That fixture would end 2-1 in favour of visiting Almeria, but Depor were similarly pleased to fend away the threat of Athletic at the Riazor, also mustering a clean sheet in their 1-0 triumph.

Ivan Cavaleiro scored to give Deportivo their fourth win of the 2014-15 league campaign, lifting the side out of the bottom three and into 15th, also helping claim Depor's second clean sheet in three games.