Cristiano Ronaldo clocked up his 400th professional goal for club and country this weekend when he followed up Benzema’s opener with two late strikes against Celta. The brace also takes him back above Diego Costa in the race for the Liga Pichichi, the Real Madrid forward already on 20 for the season. Ronaldo’s old rival Messi is still not back in the Barcelona line-up, although neither he nor Neymar have been missed as Alexis followed up Pedro’s hat-trick last week with one of his own against Elche. Pedro scored as well, and Tata Martino has a real dilemma as to which of his four forwards to leave out for the key game at Atlético next weekend.

Alexis wasn’t the only player to notch up a hat-trick in week 18 though, Villarreal’s Uche doing likewise in a high scoring 2-5 win at Rayo Vallecano in the last game of the extended weekend. Otherwise however there were not too many goals in the first round of matches after the festive rest, although Griezmann got his twelfth in as many games as Real Sociedad beat eternal rivals Athletic Bilbao 2-0, and Bacca and Rakitic scored again for Sevilla as they put in their challenge for the European spots. (07.01.14)

Pichichi League Cup Europe Total (Penalties)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 20 0 9 29 (6)
Diego Costa (Atlético) 19 0 4 23 (4)
Griezmann (Real Sociedad) 12 2 1 15 (0)
Pedro (Barcelona) 11 3 1 15 (0)
Messi (Barcelona) 8 0 6 14 (2)
Bacca (Sevilla) 9 0 4 13 (0)
Javi Guerra (Valladolid) 11 1 0 12 (0)
Vela (Real Sociedad) 8 1 3 12 (0)
Alexis (Barcelona) 11 0 0 11 (0)
Neymar (Barcelona) 6 2 3 11 (1)
Villa (Atlético Madrid) 8 2 0 10 (1)
Benzema (Real Madrid) 8 0 2 10 (0)
Rakitic (Sevilla) 8 0 2 10 (2)
Raúl García (Atlético) 6 1 3 10 (0)
Uche (Villarreal) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Fàbregas (Barcelona) 7 1 1 9 (2)
Bale (Real Madrid) 7 0 2 9 (0)
Jorge Molina (Betis) 6 1 2 9 (1)
Jonas (Valencia) 8 0 0 8 (1)
Isco (Real Madrid) 7 0 1 8 (0)
Gameiro (Sevilla) 5 0 3 8 (0)
Rodri (Almería) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Sergio García (Espanyol) 7 0 0 7 (2)
Riera (Osasuna) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Giovani (Villarreal) 6 1 0 7 (1)