La Liga Gist

Sunday Recap

Real's 10-2 throttling of Rayo Vallecano provided La Liga's biggest headline as Rafa Benitez's men got firing on all cylinders, even if it came after initially falling behind, 2-1, in front of a home audience.

Antonio Amaya cancelled out Danilo's opener before Jozabed scored to put the visitors in front, but the game started to turn against Rayo after right-back Tito was sent off for a lunged attempt at Toni Kroos.

As if competing with 10 men wasn't hard enough, Raul Baena earned himself a red just before the half-hour mark, leaving Bale to run amok alongside BBC team-mates Benzema and Ronaldo.

Ray Vallecano manager Paco Jemez called the result "grotesque" and went into detail regarding his disgust with the outcome, per Goal's Dom Farrell:

It's a long time since I've seen anything so grotesque and so embarrassing. It doesn't benefit Madrid, us or Spanish football. When something like this happens, nobody wins.

We feel humiliated but we feel good, despite what happened. My players made a great effort despite everything. We feel stepped on, played with by them.

And while one half of Madrid was in exultation, the other was noticeably more subdued as Atletico Madrid failed to move clear at La Liga's summit following Sunday's loss to Malaga, where Charles was the sole scorer.

Gabi was sent off as Los Rojiblancos fell to their first league defeat since September, although ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan came to the conclusion it was a fair result: 

The visitors were noticeably off the pace for long periods, but Malaga could perhaps be seen as underhanded in some of their tactics, according to Kieran Canning of Agence France-Presse:

Malaga (17) had more than twice as many shots at goal as Atletico (six), and yet Simeone's side managed to hit the target just one time fewer (three) than their opponent (four), perWhoScored.com.

Barcelona will have a game in hand after travelling to Japan for this week's successful FIFA Club World Cup campaign, and news of Atleti's stumble will be welcome news at the Camp Nou.

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

Simeone's side missed the mark in their Sunday away trip, but fellow heavy hitters Celta and Villarreal fared better, as they claimed 2-0 wins over Granada and Sociedad, respectively.

Barca will also have been pleased to see on-loan midfielder Denis Suarez led the Yellow Submarine to three points thanks to his brace against La Real, as shown by the official La Liga YouTube channel (via Barcastuff):

Villarreal are fifth in the table and just three points off Real Madrid following that win, but Celta remain a point ahead after goals from Iago Aspas and Orellana led them to a 2-0 victory at Granada.

Orellana and Aspas delivered a goal apiece for their side before the half-time whistle, leaving Celta with little more than a clean-up job for the second period to extend their unbeaten run to four matches.

Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press

Lastly, Athletic Bilbao kept up their pressure on the top places thanks to a 2-0 victory of their own against Levante, where second-half goals from Mikel San Jose and Inaki Williams returned Los Leones to form.

The fixture was close until Williams' 82nd-minute addition calmed Athletic's nerves, bouncing the club back to winning ways after a run of three outings without a victory.