La Liga Hangover: Top-4 Race and Does Sergi or Sergio Rule Barcelona's Midfield?

Welcome to La Liga Hangover, a weekly column running throughout the season in which we take a look at the key stories and talking points from Spanish football's top flight's most recent weekend of action. With a focus on the biggest teams, such as Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a worthwhile nod toward the rest, we take a look at how the league is shaping up each week and what to look out for going forward.

Battle of the Serg's

While Munir El Haddadi and Sandro Ramirez continue to struggle in the transition from B team standouts to senior-side regulars, one La Masia graduate has finally taken a step toward permanent integration.

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique has got plenty right since being appointed 16 months ago at Barcelona, but his words post-match this weekend, per Marca, were pure folly: "I think he's the best midfielder in the world," he uttered about Sergio Busquets.

Not that Sergio is particularly poor, but he's not even the best midfielder in his own team, let alone the world.

No, in fact it's Sergi Roberto. Sort of. Well, for a few weeks now. Actually, he started his good form at right-back. Which admittedly doesn't compare to a multiple-title-winning, World Cup-lifting near-veteran, but still, it's worth noting.

Derided by plenty as not good enough for a Barcelona midfield last season, the versatile Roberto gained form and confidence early this season with a string of top-drawer displays in defence, before moving back into midfield recently as a result of the depleted squad.

Travelling fans could be forgiven for thinking Xavi Hernandez or Yaya Toure were back at the club, given the manner of the 23-year-old's two assists as he set the platform for Luis Suarez and Neymar to continue their impressive efforts in front of goal.

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Sergi Roberto in assist mode: version 1, for Luis Suarez #FCB https://t.co/OJ3V6auZ5O

— Karl Matchett (@karlmatchett) November 2, 2015"

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Sergi Roberto in assist mode, version 2, for Neymar #FCB https://t.co/FazQaCEGbd

— Karl Matchett (@karlmatchett) November 2, 2015"

Instead, this is Sergi as he has been for most of the season: clever in possession, very much forward-thinking in his movement and distribution and showing the capacity to excel in both roles. The first was instinctive, ingenious and impressive as an attacking midfielder, the second was almost a perfect example of how he has to play from right-back—though he was still playing in the centre at the time, but exploited the flank after a counter-attack. The delivery was pinpoint.

He has been one of the most complete and consistent players in the league this term and deserves the increased standing in the squad that this run of form has surely given him; Luis Enrique will have big decisions to make once Iniesta is back fully fit, especially with Dani Alves at right-back still playing fairly poorly.

Jornada 10 Results

Deportivo La Coruna 1-1 Atletico Madrid

Real Madrid 3-1 Las Palmas

Villarreal 2-1 Sevilla

Valencia 3-0 Levante

Getafe 0-2 Barcelona

Real Sociedad 2-3 Celta Vigo

Eibar 1-0 Rayo Vallecano

Espanyol 1-1 Granada

Sporting Gijon 1-0 Malaga

Real Betis 1-3 Athletic Club

Fighting for Fourth

Assuming the big three do indeed finish as the top three again, this season's race for fourth looks exciting already. Last year, it was Valencia and Sevilla fighting it out at the end of the campaign, but for quite some time before that, Villarreal and Malaga both prolonged the fight, too.

This year, Los Che and los Rojiblancos will be fighting again, despite both having difficult starts to the season, but Villarreal are being joined by Celta Vigo instead of Malaga as the next challengers.

As the season goes on, squad depth will probably put to bed the challenge of one of those latter two sides. Villarreal have an array of attacking talent, four wide attackers and four forwards to choose from, but any kind of long-term absence for any of their two starting full-backs or Bruno Soriano in midfield could be an issue. Celta's squad is far less rounded—they can swap in perhaps one forward, one or two midfielders and one defender for the main starting XI without dropping quality, but after that the standard will drop.

JOSE JORDAN/Getty Images

Villarreal might be the best bet to finish higher out the two, even though Celta play extremely good football and beat the Yellow Submarine on their own ground two weeks ago, but Sevilla have to still be considered favourites overall, even though they lag behind in the standings at present.

A good summer of strengthening was let down only by the failure to replace Carlos Bacca adequately, so it's still something of a weekly hope that Kevin Gameiro replicates his super-sub ability on a 90-minute basis, but there's still time to remedy the issue in January if needed.

Next week will be a great set of fixtures to reveal much about each of the top-four challengers' real ambitions, beliefs and chances of success—more on that in our Ultimate Guide to La Liga on Friday.

Goal of the Weekend

What's the best time to score a swerving, dipping, left-footed half-volley into the top corner? Any time, of course. Pablo Hernandez opted for a last-minute howitzer to secure a comeback victory for Celta this weekend. Fair enough, he wins.

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Pablo Hernández beautiful goal vs Real Sociedad // ‼️ Posting only the best of La ... (Vine by La Liga Vines) https://t.co/2rgREfuim6

— Soccer vines (@infutvines) November 1, 2015"

Runner-up Edition

Take your pick. The two Barcelona goals above, Zakaria Bakkali for Valencia or Raul Garcia for Athletic Bilbao are all worthy of acclaim. We'll opt for the latter.

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#LIGABBVA | Vine #Betis 1-3 #Athetic (87' RAUL GARCIA) https://t.co/bfVXN0M91Y

— Alerta Gol vine (@alertagolvine) November 1, 2015"

Points of Authority

• Jese Rodriguez was the standout for Real Madrid at the weekend, playing down the flanks early on and then having a little time infield in attack to make an impact. He scored, created chances and worked hard off the ball to good effect—but this was against one of the league's weakest teams. There is nothing more he could have done to show Rafa Benitez he should start against PSG in the Champions League during the week; whether he does or not will show if the manager believes in the forward sufficiently to not just be a squad filler against average sides when rotation is a must.
• Malaga have failed to score in eight of their 10 matches this season. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this isn't sustainable. They place mid-table for average shots per game, per WhoScored, but rank bottom for goals netted in open play—just three all season. On the flip side, they have the joint-fourth best defensive record so far. The problems are pretty clearly identifiable.
• Real Sociedad lost again, but Imanol Agirretxe netted both their goals. Jonathas should have been an excellent signing but has looked lost on the pitch and lost his place too, with Agirretxe coming in and now sitting as La Liga's second-highest scorer this term on eight.
• It's not all about goals and assists, of course, but the never-ending Barca vs. Real competition is taking a youthful turn in La Liga this term—Alen Halilovic (on loan from FCB) scored Sporting's winner, finishing off a move he started, while Marco Asensio (loan from Real Madrid) supplied the touch for Felipe Caicedo's last-minute equaliser for Espanyol. Both are very much worth watching out for.

Tactical Notes

• Real switched to a 4-4-2 for the latter part of the second half against Las Palmas but didn't utilise it effectively, as they essentially stopped playing after half time. It's definitely a system that can bring the best use out of the likes of Lucas Vazquez and Jese, but when all starters are fit it means Benitez must leave one of his midfield three out. Casemiro continues to be of huge importance, so it's a big decision.
• Sevilla's rotating midfield was in effect at Villarreal. The two holders were Grzegorz Krychowiak and Michael Krohn-Dehli, but either of those two went forward with regularity, and Vicente Iborra dropped in. Vitolo was also frequently found dropping deep and central off the right flank to take possession, though rarely did anything of note with the ball. Indeed, that freedom of movement found little success against the ordered flat four of Villarreal's midfield.
• Last week, Las Palmas' first game under Quique Setien saw the team revert from a back five to a flat four. Levante, now under Rubi for the first time, made the exact same move in his first fixture, the 3-0 loss to Valencia.

Good Week, Bad Week

The Good

Villarreal's defence is superb. Victor Ruiz has been dominant and consistent in the centre, while both full-backs—Jaume Costa left, Mario Gaspar right—are strong in both halves of the pitch and comfortable in the extreme on the ball. Add in Eric Bailly, who is fast, strong, aerially impressive and yet ridiculously impetuous at times, and they look very tough to break down more often than not...and that's with first-choice stars Mateo Musacchio and Sergio Asenjo out injured for the long term.

Eibar's 1-0 win over Rayo lifted them quietly to sixth. They won't be shouting too much after their good start and subsequent collapse last season, but the side looks of far better quality than a year ago. Top-half finishes might be out of the question over the whole season, but they don't look anything like relegation candidates just now.

Inaki Williams produced another strong showing as he continues his comeback this season after injury. Two goals, some fine dribbles and penetrative running give Athletic Club a real edge to their attack to go with the brawn and power of Raul Garcia behind Aritz Aduriz.

The Bad

Josema Gimenez has been one of La Liga's standout centre-backs this season, but his awful mistake saw Atletico Madrid lose two points on Friday night. He tried to shepherd the ball out, lost it to Lucas Perez and the Depor forward equalised late on.

MIGUEL RIOPA/Getty Images

In contrast to Eibar's fortunes, Rayo have lost four of their last five, and coach Paco Jemez is clearly unhappy. He ended a training session early last week, unhappy at the efforts of his players and telling them they were going nowhere with such a poor attitude, per Marca.

Granada really could have done with a win at the weekend, but couldn't hold on through injury time against 10 men. They have drawn their last four, remain in the relegation zone and have won just once from 10 games this term.

The "We're Not Quite Sure"

And finally...Was there any need for Sofiane Feghouli to rob this goal off his team mate for Valencia?! Good or bad...you decide! Oh, and definitely offside.

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#LIGABBVA | Vine #Valencia 2-0 #levante (72' SOFIANE FEGHOULI) https://t.co/HHspzcq2me

— Alerta Gol vine (@alertagolvine) October 31, 2015"

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