Athletico Stand Ten Clear
Two more wins, thirty points from twelve games and a seven-point cushion: Athletico Madrid are pulling away at the top of the Spanish First Division.
Thirty points from twelve games. That is the number the rest of the Spanish First Division has to look at this morning, and it explains why nobody below them is smiling.
Athletico Madrid won twice in this cycle and did not concede a goal in either. They went to Vigo and came away with a 1-0 win, then put three past Alavés without reply. Ten wins, no draws, two defeats. The gap to Villarreal in second is seven points, and Villarreal did their part by beating Alavés 3-0 on Sunday.
Alavés, in fact, had the week from hell: beaten 3-0 by Athletico and then 3-0 again by Villarreal, and down from thirteenth to eighteenth. That is how quickly a season turns.
Below the leaders, Real Betis sit third on 23 after their own 3-0 win over Ponferrada, though Ponferrada made amends by beating Betis's rivals Sevilla 1-0 and then thrashing Betis 3-0 — no, the other way round: Ponferrada beat Sevilla and Betis in a week that lifted them from twelfth to fifth. Barcelona are fourth on 22, but they lost 1-0 at Leganés, who climbed from seventeenth to fourteenth.
Real Madrid FC drew twice, 1-1 with Vigo and 1-1 with Espanyol, and Espanyol slipped from seventh to tenth for their trouble. Oviedo's 2-0 win at Valencia and their 2-2 with Levante took them off the bottom reaches, up from eighteenth to fifteenth, while Valencia's 3-1 win at Getafe steadied them.
At the foot, Sevilla are nineteenth on eight points after losing at Ponferrada, and C. Leonesa are last on six after a 2-0 home defeat to Getafe. Neither has found a win in this cycle, and both are sinking.
Athletico's week was not only domestic: Woolley's hat-trick and Konaté's display in Europe suggest the squad is warming up nicely. The lead is theirs. The question is who has the nerve to chase it.