We had to wait until the second half of the last match of the weekend to get some fun on the villains front, but it was worth it in the end. No less than three players got their marching orders in the fixture between Valencia and Sevilla, starting with Baraja, who was unfortunate to pick up a second booking when a Sevilla player made a meal of tackle. Numbers were evened up though when Daniel Alves lost his cool as the Valencia players accused him of diving in the area, pushing over Marchena in the ensuing fracas (which Marchena also over-reacted to).

The strangest incident of the lot though came near the end, when Aranda was stretchered off the field with an injury. Sevilla manager Caparrós ordered a substitution, and Pablo came on for the striker. However Aranda didn't realise at first that he had been substituted, and after a confusing series of gestures with the referee ran on to the pitch with the ball in play. Within seconds he realised his mistake and ran back off, but it was too late and the referee produced a yellow card, which happened to be his second. According to the rule books, Valencia could therefore have claimed the match for their opponents having a man too many on the park, but new president Juan Soler sportingly said that the club would not lodge a complaint. At the time of going to press it appears that the disciplinary committee has accepted Sevilla's explanations though, and cancelled the second booking and the subsequent red card which followed.

There was one other red card during the weekend's matches, Albacete's Mikel getting himself sent off for insulting the referee's mother. The striker complained that he was insulting his own mother (not the first to use that excuse), and that the referee must have been Superman to have heard his remark from the other end of the field. Elsewhere Osasuna's Pablo García was the second player to reach the five yellow card barrier, and he misses next weekend's match at Barcelona. Sevilla's Pablo Alfaro, Albacete's David Sánchez and Osasuna manager Javier Aguirre will also miss the games as they were given two match bans from their red cards last week. Racing's Lucas Alcaraz was let off though, his red being downgraded to a yellow. (18.10.04)