Three players sent off this weekend, starting with last year's top villain Quique Alvares. The Villarreal defender has been overshadowed by his colleague Unai this season in the card stakes, but he started his comeback with a second booking ten minutes in to the second half against Valencia. Espanyol's problems increased when Martín Posse fell victim to a card hungry referee, getting two yellows in the last six minutes of the game, and Luque became the second Recreativo Huelva keeper to be sent off this season after bringing down Guti near the end of the game at Real Madrid.

Málaga's Romero moves up to third in the table after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season at Deportivo. The referee let him off bookings for bad fouls throughout the match (maybe because he felt sorry for him as he was playing with eight stitches in his head), until he finally put in a rugby tackle on Luque. He will sit out the next match, as will Llorens (Alavés), José Mari (Atlético), José Ignacio (Celta), Moratón (Racing), Loren (Recreativo) and Antoñito (Sevilla), all of whom also reached the five card limit.

The disciplinary committee also extended Joaquín's ban from the week before to three matches (although Betis expect this to be temporarliy suspended by the CEDD on appeal this Friday), and Bilbao's Gurpegui could be in trouble after a drug test for Nandrolone proved positive last week. He is waiting for a second analysis to prove his innocence, but Heynckes showed his support for the young midfielder including him in the side at the weekend. (18.12.02)