La Liga Hangover: Cristiano Ronaldo's Celebrations and Relentless Atletico

Welcome to La Liga Hangover, a weekly column running throughout the season in which we take a light-hearted, though in-depth, look at the key stories and talking points from the most recent weekend of action in Spanish football's top flight. 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.

Part 1

Cristiano Ronaldo must thrive on dividing opinion. If it's not a Messi vs. Ronaldo debate, it's one on whether he plays for himself or the team, or whether he's a great scorer of goals or a tap-in merchant who benefits from his team-mates' selflessness. (Note to all: whatever else he is, it's not [merely] that last option.)

It can be alleged, though, that the No. 7 doesn't help the perception of himself with his tantrums, petulance and lack of excitement when a team-mate scores a goal.

"

ICYMI: Ronaldo looked delighted when Benzema scored earlier: https://t.co/BFUyPInmTV

— Coral (@Coral) December 5, 2015"

Unless it's he himself who scores, of course, then each strike is more worthy of intense celebration than a moon landing, a successful world record jump or a dramatic dive to push clear a loved one from an oncoming train. Even a largely meaningless counter-attack goal to go 4-0 up against decidedly poor opposition.

"

Video: Cristiano Ronaldo scoring Real Madrid's fourth goal! https://t.co/3hCLwfj4Ad

— RMCFMedia (@RMCFMedia) December 5, 2015"

CURTO DE LA TORRE/Getty Images

Some will say it doesn't matter whether he celebrates with his team-mates or not, as long as the job gets done and the points are in the bag. But, perhaps it does. Perhaps this Real Madrid side is too individualistic to be genuinely successful, especially over the longer term. That last point can hardly be argued, given their lack of relative success over the past half-a-dozen seasons.

Manager Rafael Benitez has plenty of strengths to his management game, but fostering a close-knit side and a siege mentality to get everybody playing for each other has never been one of them. At times, in fact, you could be forgiven for thinking he's an advanced experiment in AI: perfectly knowledgeable, pleasant and earning respect from many quarters, but not understanding why humans have this insatiable need to be wanted.

The desire to perform and work for each other has to come from within for this team, and it's not really there at present. Of course, titles can still be won without it, but when a tough run of results comes up, quality alone isn't always enough to pull through in time.

Should Sergio Ramos, perhaps, as captain and Real Madrid icon, not have a word or two with Ronaldo as a team-mate and a friend to explain how he should err a little more on the side of the team rather than himself? Is Ronaldo really that fragile an ego that he couldn't take a few pointers on that scale?

With his immense talent, lesser beings (also known as team-mates) would only admire him more and want to supply him more often if he deigned to offer his congratulations and admiration when they did something worthy of note.

Most important, though, is Real taking advantage of their early game to get three points, with Barcelona then slipping up later on. The gap is now four points from first to third.

Jornada 14 Results

Real Madrid 4-1 Getafe

Granada 0-2 Atletico Madrid

Valencia 1-1 Barcelona

Deportivo La Coruna 1-1 Sevilla

Real Betis 1-1 Celta Vigo

Real Sociedad 2-1 Eibar

Villarreal 2-1 Rayo Vallecano

Sporting Gijon 3-1 Las Palmas

Athletic Club 0-0 Malaga

Espanyol vs. Levante, Monday 7:30 p.m. GMT

Part 2

Staying with a focus on the capital city, Atletico Madrid's weekend win coupled with Los Che managing a late equaliser against table-topping Barcelona means it's Diego Simeone's men who now have the best current win streak in La Liga, with four consecutive victories.

A 2-0 win was more than merited at Granada, with Atleti dominating play as has been their style in the past month or two—and, similarly to the past couple of months, with the Rojiblancos being able to find the finishing touches to dispatch teams by the three or four goals their play warrants.

JORGE GUERRERO/Getty Images

This time, at least, the string of 1-0 wins was ended by Antoine Griezmann's late top-corner effort to double the lead, after the likes of Fernando Torres, Diego Godin (scorer of the first) and Griezmann himself had all gone close with earlier efforts. Atleti's team is looking complete and well-rounded once more; a solid base with great protection in front, a midfield blending pace and excitement with tenacity and discipline, and a lot of movement in the front line.

Since the 1-1 derby draw with Real Madrid in early October, goalkeeper Jan Oblak has conceded just one goal from open play in all competitions—the Josema Gimenez error leading to Lucas Perez's strike against Deportivo La Coruna. Only Paco Alcacer from the penalty spot adds to that list of conceded goals since the derby, and it's six successive clean sheets in all competitions from Oblak.

It's a phenomenal stretch of defensive solidity that remains the absolute basis for success for Atleti.

At the other end, they still need one of Luciano Vietto or Jackson Martinez to discover a scoring touch to really put teams to bed regularly, but they are an ominously determined, impressive and relentless team who will take immense stopping to lift more titles this season.

Goal of the Weekend

Rayo Vallecano's Jozabed takes the honours this week for a fantastic strike at Villarreal:

Points of Authority

• Lucas Perez continues to embody the best of Depor this season: tenacious, hard-working and capable of creating and taking a chance. He has now scored in each of his last five matches, with eight in his last nine.
• Lucas Vazquez is a typical Rafa Benitez squad favourite: not too disheartened when not starting every week, happy to be perceived as versatile, hard-working, a great runner and willing to fill in however required in a tactical sense. He's nearly Real Madrid's Dirk Kuyt, except he doesn't start quite as often.
• Form suggests a low-scoring victory for Espanyol at home to Levante on Monday night. They won't move up from 12th, but the distance between themselves and the bottom three would be significant. A win for Levante would move them out the drop zone, while even a point lifts them off bottom and leaves Las Palmas in 20th.

Tactical Notes

• Valencia opted to pack the midfield, sit deep and counter-attack against Barcelona. They got the point in the end with a late Santi Mina goal, but it's tough to say Voro's tactics "worked," since Barcelona carved them open so many times but were profligate with their finishing. Despite the numbers, there was no support from the midfield for the full-backs, especially right-side, and too few got forward to support the attack. Much work for Gary Neville lies ahead as he begins his tenure as Los Che's new boss.
• Villarreal got back to 4-4-2 this week, and the provider/finisher combo of Roberto Soldado and Cedric Bakambu paid huge dividends once again. The former Spurs man set up his Congolese partner for the equaliser, before also being involved in the build-up for Bakambu's late winner.
• Atletico started with a 4-3-3, with Saul and Koke both central to make up for Tiago's absence, but it was Gabi who happily shifted right at times to create a four-man midfield (with Yannick Carrasco dropping into midfield from the front line) when out of possession. The fluidity balanced with solidity was once again an impenetrable barrier which caused problems going forward.

Good Week, Bad Week

The Good

Antonio Sanabria hit a hat-trick to give Sporting a vital win on Sunday. The teenager has five in nine in La Liga now, and his side are four points clear of the drop zone.

The battle of the Basque strikers continues apace; there were no goals for Aritz Aduriz this weekend, but Imanol Agirretxe struck twice to move to 11 in La Liga—Aduriz has 10. Key point to note: Bruma put himself on the line for the last-minute winner, beating the 'keeper to a 50-50 that was rolling in anyway before Agirretxe smashed home from three yards.

Jeff Holmes/Getty Images

After a rough couple of weeks, Real Madrid's BBC attack were each on the scoresheet against extremely accommodating opponents in Getafe. Maybe that's just what they needed to get back on track more frequently.

The Bad

Malaga's away record this season in La Liga now reads played seven, won none, scored none. That said, they did move out of the relegation zone with a point from their 0-0 draw at San Mames.

Barcelona's MSN forgot their collective shooting boots this weekend. It happens once in a while and is no big deal, but each would feel they ought to have buried at least one chance apiece; Luis Suarez scored one, and the irony, of course, was that his was actually offside.

Nobody at Eibar will be too worried just at the moment, but after last season's collapse, they might just be a little more determined to quickly stop the rot. They're now three without a win and have dropped to ninth, with a tight bottom half meaning six points separates them from 16th. Next opponents are Valencia and Depor.

Unconfirmed rumours suggest Ruben Vezo is still untangling himself from Neymar tying him up in knots on Saturday.

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