How we shall miss him! Spain's number one super-villain Oscar Téllez - eat your hearts out Joker, Mister Freeze and the rest - is on his way down to the second division. But the man who topped our table two years running was not going to go without a fight, and when we say fight we mean fight! Our Oscar has not had such a good season this year, left out of the side for being overweight etc., and looked as if he was not going to make our chart for the first time since we started three years ago. Drastic action was needed, what the hell we're down anyway, a punch in the face to Capi and a red card and a four match ban. Roberto's your tío and up to fifth place!

Téllez was only one of five players sent off this weekend though. Rayo's Iriney for example set something of a record getting himself red-carded for the second match in a row. The young Brazilian midfielder was let off a one match ban by the appeals committee after getting sent off last weekend, but this week he decided to turn goalkeeper and made a brilliant reaction save to stop Mallorca's Nadal from scoring. Unfortunately he was not wearing the green jersey and had to go.

Two big names went in to the referees' notebooks as well, starting with Deportivo's Naybet who got his marching orders as early as the fifth minute when he brought down Atlético's José Marí from behind in the penalty area. The following day it was the turn of Ayala, who was given a second booking for handling the ball and earned himself a red card for the third time this season. Both will be sorely missed when the competition resumes in a fortnight's time.

The fifth red card of the weekend was for Espanyol's Lopo, who was booked for the second time late in the game at Santander. He will miss the next round of matches, as will twelve other players who reached the yellow card threshold, Contra (Atlético), Cáceres and Juanfran (Celta) and Josemi (Málaga) with ten yellow cards, and Ilie (Alavés), Ezquerro (Athletic), Arzu and Filipescu (Betis), Angel (Celta), Alex Fernández (Espanyol), Pernía (Recreativo) and Caminero (Valladolid) with five. (03.06.03)