La Liga Table 2015: Sunday's Week 9 Results and Updated Standings

Sunday saw Barcelona draw level on points with Real Madrid at the top of La Liga, as a Luis Suarez hat-trick gave them a 3-1 victory over a stubborn Eibar at the Camp Nou.

However, the victory was tainted by Javier Mascherano receiving a red card in the latter stages of the match for verbally abusing the referee, which could land him a four-match suspension, according to AS.

That would keep the Argentinian sidelined for the first El Clasico of the season on November 21, and with Gerard Pique’s fitness hanging in the balance, it’s not exactly ideal.

Jeremy Mathieu or Thomas Vermaelen will step in for Mascherano over the coming month, yet journalist Sergi Dominguez believes that may not be a bad thing:

Still, the win over Eibar took Barca up to 21 points from nine matches, with only goal difference temporarily separating them from top spot.

Here’s a look at the full La Liga table together with Sunday’s other results:

Pos.	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Goal Difference	Points
1	Real Madrid	9	6	3	0	21	3	+18	21
2	Barcelona	9	7	0	2	20	12	+8	21
3	Atlético Madrid	9	6	1	2	14	5	+9	19
4	Celta Vigo	9	5	3	1	18	11	+7	18
5	Villarreal	9	5	2	2	13	7	+6	17
6	Deportivo La Coruña	9	3	4	2	14	11	+3	13
7	Eibar	9	3	4	2	12	10	+2	13
8	Sevilla	9	3	3	3	13	12	+1	12
9	Valencia	9	3	3	3	8	7	+1	12
10	Betis	9	3	3	3	9	13	−4	12
11	Espanyol	9	4	0	5	10	20	−10	12
12	Getafe	9	3	1	5	10	13	−3	10
13	Rayo Vallecano	9	3	1	5	11	17	−6	10
14	Real Sociedad	9	2	3	4	10	9	+1	9
15	Sporting Gijón	8	2	3	3	10	11	−1	9
16	Málaga	9	2	3	4	5	7	−2	9
17	Athletic Bilbao	8	2	2	4	10	12	−2	8
18	Las Palmas	9	1	3	5	6	13	−7	6
19	Granada	9	1	3	5	9	17	−8	6
20	Levante	9	1	3	5	6	19	−13	6

Fixture	Result
Levante vs. Real Sociedad	0-4
Las Palmas vs. Villarreal	0-0
Barcelona vs. Eibar	3-1
Atletico Madrid vs. Valencia	2-1

Suarez Shines on Bittersweet Sunday

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

Despite Mascherano’s stupidity, there were plenty of positives to take from Barca’s 3-1 victory over Eibar—none more so than the finishing of Suarez.

The former Liverpool man showed his ruthless edge in front of goal on Sunday, notching up three goals to chalk out Borja Baston’s opener for the visitors.

WhoScored.com revealed Suarez’s stunning stats:

Neymar was also exemplary in the victory, filling Lionel Messi’s shoes and being the architect behind everything good going forward for the hosts.

Once again, the statistics speak for themselves—via Squawka:

Yet it’s defensively where Barca still look a little vulnerable and could well come unstuck against Real Madrid next month.

A comedy of errors from the back four led to Baston’s strike, while Marc Bartra looked relatively lost throughout the match until he was hauled off after half-time.

It’s just as well Barca has Suarez to call upon, then, even though the likes of Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets were as impressive as ever.

LLUIS GENE/Getty Images

The latter, however, was quick to admit that something needs to be done about the club’s leaky defence—as he told the club website:

"We are in a dynamic in which [other teams] come into our area and they score. We have to fix it so that when we play the biggest games we aren't penalised as much."

The talented Real Madrid will undoubtedly penalise Barca if they don’t fix up their act, so manager Luis Enrique needs to do something fast.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid moved up to third place with a hard-fought victory over Valencia at the Vicente Calderon, with Jackson Martinez and Yannick Ferreira Carrasco getting on the scoresheet.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

Paco Alcacer pulled one back for the visitors from the penalty spot midway through the second half, but Atletico just about managed to hold on the for win.

Carrasco’s goal was the pick of the bunch, as he drifted in from the left flank before slamming the ball past Jaume at his near post.

His, and the team’s, performance was nothing short of superb, though, as Valencia had no answer to their free-flowing, attacking football.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Diego Simeone’s men face a tough-looking trip to Deportivo next time around, where they’ll need to produce another excellent performance to keep their place in the top three.

Earlier on Sunday, Real Sociedad moved three points adrift of the drop zone courtesy of a 4-0 win over Levante, who stay rooted to the La Liga basement.

A Carlos Vela brace and goals from Imanol Agirretxe and Asier Illarramendi gave David Moyes’ side all three points, while Deyverson was sent off for the hosts in the dying embers.

Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

Las Palmas and Villarreal then played out a rather drab 0-0 at the Estadio de Gran Canaria, keeping the Yellow Submarine in fifth place behind Celta Vigo.

In Week 10, both Real Madrid and Barcelona face very winnable games against Las Palmas and Getafe respectively, where they’ll each be looking for three points to pull away from the chasing pack.

They say the table starts to take shape after 10 games, and with Real and Barca firing on all cylinders, we better get used to seeing them duel at the top.

It’s all just a case of who blinks first. Bring on November 21.