Joseph Sexton
IT had to happen; the only surprise was that it happened here.
Earlier this month, Levante lost their unbeaten run in this season’s La Liga championship. Sevilla duly followed suit. That left only the champions, Barcelona, whose last defeat came with the title already in the bag in the spring. It might sound ridiculous - this is a team who had 38 goals in 12 going into Saturday's trip to Getafe. A team who had conceded just six. Indeed, up until conceding two at Bilbao a fortnight ago, they had set a new club record for consecutive shut outs. And, as has been the case for Pep Guardiola's tenure as a whole, their most common result has remained a 5-0 victory. But the truth remains that something has not been quite right this season. There has been something laboured about their play at times, and they have developed a worrying knack for giving up cheap goals, particularly from dead ball situations.
Then there is the small matter of their away record, which has been under whelming - at least set aside the standards we've come to expect. There is no shame in dropping points at Valencia and in Bilbao, particularly as the latter has always been a tough place for the Catalan side to visit. But single goal victories away to relegation fodder like Sporting and Granada, and another 2-2 draw at lowly Real Sociedad can give us an indication that Barça have been struggling on their travels. Winter is not yet upon, yes already they are not far off matching their total for dropped points in the whole of last season.
But, few would have been brave enough to predict they would come unstuck here. This is Getafe after all. Getafe who have endured a wretched start to their campaign under the former Levante boss, Luís García Plaza. This is the same Getafe who were eviscerated by Atlético just two weeks ago, who know they have no fans and make light of the fact; witness this season's promo encouraging their sparse fan base to go forth and multiply. When Rayo Vallecano came up this summer, they became they worst supported capital side in the primera. A tweet doing the rounds as they went down in that last home outing seemed to sum this up perfectly: Getafe losing again; “their fan won't be happy”.
Getafe were taken over last spring my the Royal Emirates Group, but these are no sugar daddy Arab owners. Aside from appointing García, the only time they've caught anyone's attention was when it was leaked that they were considering renaming the club ‘Team Dubai’. Levante may have beaten Real Madrid, but then no club other than Real & Barcelona has picked up more league points this calendar year than Levante. So how to make sense of this one then?
Even the greatest sides can have a bad day at the office. And it truth, Barcelona have been having a few of these lately. They've been getting away with it because, even when playing at 70% of their potential, they are simply far too good for most teams; especially at home, And especially with Lionel Messi in such superhuman form. But what Real fans once derided as possession for possession's sake- before the same approach brought Spain two senior international titles, and was co-opted to an extent by José Mourinho's team this term - has become somewhat problematic in itself. Or not, per sé, in itself - there is a world of difference between the blunt-edged side of the latter part of the Rijkaard era and the aggressive, hungry, pressing game that has characterised them since. Is it fair then, as some have tried of late, to question their hunger? Probably not. The manner in which they came back against both Valencia and Athletic ought to give the lie to that; more prescient, perhaps is the matter of fatigue.
The simple fact from Saturday's game is that Barcelona dominated it in any measurable way. But if we look beyond the numbers, or even look more closely at them, some things become more clear. Barcelona are now posting higher possession figures than at any time in the Guardiola epoch. But it's true too that they are getting less shots in. And that they have come to depend perhaps too heavily on Messi at a time where - by contrast- Real have been diversifying their goal threat away from a Cristiano Ronaldo whose goal feats, nonetheless, remain terrifying.
And here's the rub: all things remain relative. On their own, Barcelona's number - of points, of goals, of victories - looks impressive. But this is a league title where we know the big two are likely to drop very little point - and Real have dropped just five so far, to Barcelona's 11. Draws, never mind defeats, have become unacceptable.
Real, true to Mourinho's promise the day he took the reigns at the Bernabéu, have been playing much better football in his second season there. Much better football than any other team in Europe at this point. On the face of it, a six point gap so early in the season looks a daunting task. But Barcelona don't have to wait long to put that right; they travel to Bernabéu on December 10th. There, they will face a Real team that has yet to beat them in a game that really mattered under Mou. But the two Supercopa clashes at the start of the season, even if Barça ultimately prevailed, showed us that Real have the capability to match them- in attack, in aggression, in intelligence, in thrust. The sides’ respective form seems to indicate that this was no fluke. In most countries, calling the league title done and dusted in early December, would seem preposterous. But, España, as they say, es diferente. The next fortnight will go a long way to telling us if these trends are to be believed, but for now it is clear- and for the first since Guardiola took over- that Barcelona face a very real test to their supremacy.
MEANWHILE AROUND THE GROUNDS
VALENCIA are now within a point of the champions, but it's with the Madrid Derby that we need to begin. In any other week, this would have been the main talking point. It's a peculiar denouement; Gregorio Manzano has been under fire for some time, but the Atlético coach walks away from this 4-1 defeat with his position strengthened. Firstly, because his side took the lead and had generally looked good- secondly, because the exact result was conditioned by two red cards, and perhaps some dubious refereeing too. Certainly the latter is the verdict outside the white half of the city.
On loan Chelsea keeper Thibaud Courtois was the first to see red, when his side still led. The penalty was probably fair: certainly Courtois did not contend that it wasn't, but with Perea and Filipe both covering, the straight red was questionable. The second- against Diego Godín, was even less obviously a penalty, and three players were covering this time. “It's always something in favour of Real,” lamented Manzano after the game; the first time he and the support have been singing from the same hymn sheet this season.
Sociedad secured the points at Betis with a 90th minute Iñigo Martínez screamer - from inside his own half. Martínez has previous, having scored a peach of a volley from this area against Bilbao in September. Former Sociedad favourite, Xabi Alonso- a man with form for this sort of thing himself, was quick to offer praise. Elsewhere, Levante arrested their recent slump with a 4-0 thumping of Sporting, and remain in fourth place; or 14 points from near certain safety, as their boss Juan Martínez would rather stress.
RESULTS: Rayo Vallecano 1 Valencia 2, Real Madrid 4 Atlético Madrid 1, Getafe 1 Barcelona 0, Betis 2 Real Sociedad 3, Levante 4 Sporting Gijon 0, Espanyol 1 Osasuna 2, Mallorca 2 Racing 1, Athletic Bilbao 0 Granada 1
Zaragoza 0 Sevilla 1
Tonight: Málaga v Villarreal
**Follow Joseph on Twitter @josephsbcn
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/U03zAXXzZqE/post.aspx
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