Two villains move clear of the rest this week, early contenders for the crown of the winner of the last two years, Oscar Téllez. Last week's leader Graff looked as if he was going to extend his lead after completing the second cycle of five yellow cards, which together with his sending off earlier this season takes him on to 17 points. However Villarreal's Quique Alvarez managed to move a point ahead of him after getting himself sent off in Villarreal's cup match against Bilbao, the second red card he has seen in that competition. Villarreal have one of the worst disciplinary records in the top flight, and with referee Pino Zamorano dishing out yellow cards all over the place, Unai and Arruabarrena join Alvarez and Amor to make it four of their players in our chart. As well as Alvarez, Unai will miss the second leg after picking up his third yellow in the cup.

Only two red cards in the league this weekend, which together with 47 yellows is one of the lowest totals of the year. One of the two reds was for Real Sociedad manager John Toshack, who has picked up enough Spanish in his years in Spain to be able to insult the referee with grammatical perfection. Needless to say this was not the first time he has been sent off in his managerial career, nor is it likely to be the last. Only one actual player sent off therefore, the unlucky man being Betis substitute César, who was only on the pitch for just over a quarter of an hour before he hacked down Málaga's Miguel Angel from behind. Two of our old villains come back in to our table this week, Vinny Samways, who picked up his tenth yellow card of the season in the league and will therefore sit out the next game, and Hierro, who by all reports was lucky not to be given his marching orders against Valencia. Four players picked up their fifth yellow cards and will also miss next weekend's matches, including Capi (Betis), Vagner (Celta), David (Sevilla) and Curro Torres (Valencia). (14.01.02)