Five key stats from week 12 in La Liga

Wins for Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid mean it’s as you were at the top of La Liga after the latest round of fixtures.

Elsewhere Real Sociedad continued their return to form, Valencia picked up a vital win at Getafe and Granada became only the third team – after Barcelona and Real Madrid – to beat Levante thanks to a late, late free kick from Piti.

Almeria waited 10 matches for a win, now, after their win over Real Valladolid, they have secured two in a row. Malaga and Celta Vigo, meanwhile, both picked up wins to ease them clear of the bottom three – the two Seville clubs were on the receiving end of disappointing defeats.

Rayo Vallecano winning in the wrong areas

After taking possession off Barcelona, Rayo Vallecano took the game to Real Madrid on Saturday evening as they almost completed an unlikely comeback from 3-0 down.

They ended the match with 56 percent of the possession and 23 efforts on goal in comparison to Los Blancos’ 11. Diego Lopez was forced to make four saves – a couple of which were bordering on the sublime – but, at the end of the day, they once again ended a match with zero points.

Most alarming is their inability to score. Both the goals against Madrid came from Jonathan Viera penalties and only Granada have scored less goals than them so far this season.

At the other end they’ve conceded five more than any other side – it’s little surprise they prop up the table.

Messi’s goal drought continues

Following Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Espanyol, Lionel Messi has now gone four matches in La Liga without hitting the back of the net.

In fact the last time he scored a league goal was against Almeria on the 28th September.

In the Catalan derby on Friday night he managed five attempts on goal, however only one hit the target – a header from a Dani Alves cross which forced Kiko Casilla into a wonderful save.

Meanwhile Alexis Sanchez, who hit the winner from Neymar’s double nutmeg asisst, is in a real purple patch. He’s scored seven this season and 14 in his last 20 appearances in the Primera Division.

Atletico marry potent attack with mean defence

David Villa’s back among the goals and Diego Costa now has 13 in the league this season, but it can’t be underestimated how good Atletico Madrid’s defence is.

In their 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday they restricted the Basque side to just two shots throughout the whole game – neither of which were on target.

Brazilian freebie Miranda has been exceptional for Los Rojiblancos for a long time now, however it was his defensive colleague Diego Godin who was chief in keeping out Athletic at the Vicente Calderon.

The Uruguayan defender won three out of three tackles, three out of four aerial duels, made two interceptions and completed all 14 of his 14 attempted clearances.

La Real finding their feet

Real Sociedad have made a meandering start to the season, struggling in the Champions League and failing to put a run together in La Liga.

Until now.

Jagoba Arrasate’s side are now four games without defeat in the league, and Saturday’s 5-0 win was a continuation of a fantastic run of results which should see them welcome Manchester United to Anoeta on Tuesday night full of confidence.

They had 17 efforts on goal against the Pamplona side, with eight hitting the target and five making the net bulge.

Antoine Griezmann is their main antagonist at the moment. He was one of five scorers at the weekend – converting one of his three shots – taking his tally to six goals in his last four league matches.

One shot, one goal for clinical Samuel

There’s little more rewarding for a manager than seeing one of your substitutes effect the game.

Malaga manager Bernd Schuster threw forward Samuel Garcia on in the final stages of his side’s match against Real Betis with the score locked at 2-2 on Sunday night.

And deep into stoppage time the 23-year-old popped up with the winner to seal all three points at La Rosaleda with his only shot of the game – it was the only one he needed.

As the goal hit the back of the net, the television cameras panned to Betis’ manager Pepe Mel – he looked far from happy, and with good reason too. His side are now level with Almeria and Rayo at the bottom of the table on nine points.