Storylines to Follow in La Liga This Weekend: Expect Cristiano Ronaldo to Return
La Liga returns at the weekend after a spate of midweek European games, with Spain's top flight looking increasingly exciting in all major areas of the table.
The title race, the challenge for Champions League berths and the bid to escape relegation are all entering the phase of the season when every mistake is punished and all points won—or indeed lost—can prove pivotal.
We've taken a look at the upcoming fixtures and picked out the biggest headline-makers and storylines for you to follow during Matchday 24.
Ronaldo Ready to Come Back with a Bang (Poor Elche)
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Cristiano Ronaldo looked far better than he has done recently last time out in La Liga against Deportivo La Coruna, despite his one-yard, open-goal miss, and his goal against Schalke in the Champions League will be a confidence boost to a man used to finding the target every game.
This week, Real Madrid face Elche, a team just outside the relegation zone and with the league's second-leakiest defence—and you can expect Ronaldo to take things up a level or two and pummel the Valencian side with set piece after set piece, burst after burst of acceleration and, above all else, shot after shot.
He still leads the Pichichi standings, albeit by just two goals, but you can envisage him scoring at least twice this weekend to keep Real top of La Liga.
Elche, for their part, picked up a precious three points in their most recent outing, so although they could face a hammering here, they won't look at it as horrendous, considering they are four points clear of the bottom three and most teams lose heavily to the reigning champions of Europe.
Luis Enrique Looking to Beat Pep Guardiola's Record
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On Sunday, Barcelona swamped Levante by a 5-0 scoreline, recording their 11th successive victory in all competitions—a record-equalling tally for Luis Enrique.
The manager claimed that he wasn't bothered by it unless it led to titles at the end of the season, per Sport, but a win over Malaga on Saturday will make it 12—a better run of wins than Pep Guardiola managed to put together at any point as Barcelona boss.
Barça have been in free-scoring form, conceding few, and they are set to face a Malaga side who are struggling to create or score and have been falling further and further away from the top six in recent weeks.
Villarreal Strongest XI Could Close the Gap
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Villarreal recently rested players for their league game against Granada, who were then bottom, and comfortably won, 2-0. It was natural; the opposition was easier, the game being at home and they were facing Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinal in midweek.
On Sunday, however, resting players away to Rayo Vallecano did not pay off. They lost, 2-0, and they didn't really create much until they brought on regular starters Luciano Vietto, Denis Cheryshev and Manu Trigueros to bring some quality and offensive threat.
This time around, they face Eibar, a team woefully out of form after four straight defeats, and a win is clearly a big possibility for the Yellow Submarine—but they need their stars on the field to do it. Tomas Pina, Joel Campbell, Gio dos Santos and the like are not proving consistent enough to come in and make a difference.
With six points now the gap between Villarreal and fourth-placed Valencia, Marcelino's side need to make sure of the points to stay in the race for the Champions League.
Valencia will almost certainly beat Cordoba, but Sevilla—the other side in the top-four hunt—face a tough task away to Real Sociedad.
All-Important Relegation Battle
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Down at the bottom, the three clubs in the relegation zone had a bad weekend last time out, as they saw the gap to safety increase to four points.
This weekend, only one game matters: Levante, 19th, versus Granada, 18th.
Drawing is no good to either, they have to be brave enough to go out there and take a victory by any means necessary. Closing the gap is imperative before the number of matches left dwindles away, and Cordoba (versus Valencia), Elche (versus Real Madrid) and Almeria (versus Atletico Madrid) are all likely to face defeat this weekend.
It's a huge opportunity for both of these sides to pull themselves back toward the group of clubs fighting for safety.
Celta and Espanyol with Opportunity to Challenge Malaga
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In the middle of the table, Celta Vigo have rediscovered the ability to score goals and win games, while Espanyol's massively improved run has also taken them up to eighth.
Both those clubs are enjoying a good moment, while the team above them, Malaga, continues to fall away.
There could well be a Europa League spot on offer for seventh place, and wins this weekend for Celta and Espanyol would move them to within four and three points respectively of the Andalusian side.
They are both away and not against easily beatable sides in Deportivo and Getafe, but if the confidence continues to flow and the determination is there to make the most of the fluid state of La Liga, this could be the weekend they really put pressure on Malaga to stop their slide down the table.
Basque Sides Needing Serious Arrest of Awful Form
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We finish up with a look at the three Basque sides in La Liga, all of whom are on terrible recent runs of results and having seasons that have contrasted in form but have ended up with all three within four places in the table.
Eibar started fantastically and enjoyed a tremendous first half of the season but have since fallen off dramatically. Real Sociedad had poor results and fantastic wins but lacked consistency or conviction, so they sacked their boss and have since become resolute but not impressive under David Moyes. And Athletic Bilbao, fourth last season, started in awful form, were in the relegation zone for some time before climbing out after an improved run around November.
Lately, all three have been incapable of putting wins together: Taking into account the last six league games for each team, those 18 matches have yielded just three victories, one each.
It's not good enough for the bigger two, while Eibar must ensure their early hard work does not result in a collapse into a relegation scrap late on this term.
