La Liga Hangover: Title Race Blown Open, Real Madrid's Jekyll and Hyde Form

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 examine how the league is shaping up each week and what to look out for going forward.

Anoeta Groundhog Day for Luis Enrique

January 2015, Anoeta: Real Sociedad, floundering somewhat under a new manager appointed just before Christmas and with one win in five in La Liga, host Barcelona. The away team's manager, Luis Enrique, makes changes to his side, including leaving out two main forwards. Real Sociedad score early, defend bravely and win 1-0 against the odds.

It's often suggested that the best in any field learn from their mistakes, and perhaps they do. But perhaps, on occasion, they learn from making the same errors more than once.

April 2016, Anoeta: Real Sociedad, floundering somewhat under a new manager appointed just before Christmas and with one win in six in La Liga, host Barcelona. The away team's manager, Enrique, makes changes to his side including leaving out his main centre-forward and two creative midfielders. Real Sociedad...well, you know the rest.

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As a one-off result, the defeat isn't the worst in the world. But it's now five losses in the last six trips to San Sebastian for Barcelona. This wasn't a freak result; it's a truly difficult place for big sides to go with an intimidating crowd, a relentless approach to proving themselves for the players and undoubtedly a mental factor built in for the away side too. This was a predictable outcome from the moment Luis Enrique prioritised the upcoming UEFA Champions League fixture against Atletico Madrid.

Few teams go through an entire campaign unbeaten, so the odd loss, taken in isolation, means little—but Barcelona's four-game run that we identified as being key to the title back in March has so far yielded one point from a possible nine.

The gap is down to three points.

Next up is Valencia, who secured a first win under new(est) coach Pako Ayestaran on Sunday.

La Liga is far from done and dusted just yet. And to add another layer of intrigue, the top two meet on Wednesday in an all-or-nothing quarter-final second leg in the Champions League.

Jornada 32 results

Granada 0-0 Malaga

Real Madrid 4-0 Eibar

Espanyol 1-3 Atletico Madrid

Real Sociedad 1-0 Barcelona

Real Betis 1-0 Levante

Sporting Gijon 0-1 Celta Vigo

Valencia 2-1 Sevilla

Villarreal 2-0 Getafe

Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Rayo Vallecano

Deportivo La Coruna vs. Las Palmas, Monday 7:30 p.m. BST kick-off

Zizou's Jekyll and Hyde

Real Madrid started fast and kept up their excellent tempo and attacking combination plays throughout the first 45 minutes against Eibar, rattling in four goals and creating enough chances to add at least three more to that tally by the break.

Showing all the courtesy of a 1940s English gent, Eibar continually ushered Real down the channels and behind the defence, allowing the Real front three to play each other in on goal so often you could be forgiven for thinking they were South American and had dinner with each other afterward. Not being in any mood to pass up the invites, the game was over by the break.

Given the exertions that'll be required on Tuesday to overhaul a two-goal deficit in Europe, it was perhaps understandable that Zinedine Zidane's team eased off in the second half, but the manager surely has to ensure his side don't revert to the other type of performance—that seen at Wolfsburg on Wednesday—by including the best performers from this game in the starting XI for the second leg.

Most notably, those names should be Jese and James Rodriguez.

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The Spaniard provides great movement, enormous pace and selfless running, all key traits that can make up for the intelligence lost up top because of Karim Benzema's absence. James, meanwhile, showed the endeavour and quality that should make Toni Kroos' recent anonymity an irrelevance consigned to the bench.

Real have to go for it in the second leg, and they're certainly capable of turning around the 2-0 scoreline, but it needs big players for the big occasion. The win over Eibar has fostered that immediate culture of fighting (whether it be for points, places in the team or chances on goal) and Zidane must run with it, keeping the fire in the team and the crowd on edge.

They're still on the fringes of the title race thanks to their ability to bring out the odd shocking performance, as well as being still third place, but they are most certainly capable of springing a comeback victory in the Champions League—and who knows what momentum that may bring for the rest of the season.

Points of Authority and Tactical Notes

• Eibar took the novel approach of pressing high, leaving gaps in midfield and trying to play offside in defence against perhaps the fastest Real Madrid attack combination of the season: Cristiano Ronaldo, a fully fit Jese and Lucas Vazquez. It didn't work.
• Las Palmas could win a fifth match in six on Monday night, as the in-form side travelling to face Deportivo La Coruna, who have won just once since Christmas.
• Koke is enjoying his best run of form of the campaign for Atletico Madrid, and it's notable he is playing either centrally or from the right rather than on the left, as he did all of last season and at the start of this.
• Dani Parejo played a constructive role from deep in midfield for Valencia under Gary Neville, but Pako Ayestaran has pushed him back forward. He wasn't exactly influential on the ball against Sevilla, lacking in confidence and missing two big opportunities, but he was getting into good positions between the lines and scored a deflected free-kick before half-time.

Stat Attack

• Barcelona haven't won at Anoeta since 2007, per Statto.com.
• Granada have drawn their last four matches.
• Cristiano Ronaldo reached 30 goals for the season on Saturday, becoming the first player in La Liga to do so for six campaigns in a row, per Opta.
• Real Sociedad scored and won their game against Barcelona with their only shot on target.
• As a club, Valencia had more shots during the 90 minutes than anyone else, with 23. As individuals, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were both the most productive with seven apiece—yielding one goal between them.
• Only one team managed over 60 per cent possession: Barcelona (71 per cent). It failed to yield a point.
• Athletic Bilbao were the only team not to win a corner. Real Sociedad won five but didn't find a team-mate from any of them.

Stats per WhoScored.com unless stated.

Good Week, Bad Week

The Good

A number of teens and 20-year-olds impressed in La Liga, with Mikel Oyarzabal (RSO, 18), Santi Mina (VAL, 20), Charly Musonda (BET, 19) and Lucas Hernandez (ATM, 20) topping the charts.

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There were no red cards this gameweek! Unless Depor or Las Palmas spoil it on Monday night.

Sergio Asenjo was back in goal for Villarreal and helped keep the team's 15th clean sheet of the season with a fine reaction save—from his own team-mate and captain, Bruno, late in the game. Only Atletico have managed more shut-outs this season.

A fourth draw in a row for Granada made them the big beneficiaries down at the bottom; the other five in the bottom six all lost. There's a two-point gap between Granada in 17th and Sporting Gijon in the drop zone.

The Bad

The worst losing streak belongs to Sevilla, who have suffered three straight defeats. The joint-second worst runs are two losses in a row apiece for Getafe, Eibar and Barcelona.

Sevilla's abysmal away form continued on Sunday, as they were largely poor throughout at Mestalla. They still haven't won a game on the road this term in La Liga and are out of the European places, down in seventh in the table.

Rayo Vallecano thought they had taken the lead on the hour mark at San Mames, only for an extremely marginal offside call to go against them—and 30 seconds later they were behind to what turned out to be the winning goal. Rough.

Luis Enrique and his costly changes make him the weekend's biggest villain.

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