For the first time this season not one single red card was dished out. Not one. Nothing. Not a sausage. We checked our records, and if we are not mistaken the last time this happened was in the first week of the 2002/3 season, when referees were still in a holiday mood and hadn't got back into the swing of blowing whistles and telling people off and things. And maybe that is what happened here, with the previous week being a holiday week in Spain and what with Christmas coming up and all? Whatever the reasons, only four players will miss next weekend's round of matches after picking up their fifth bookings of the season, including Rivera (Levante), Valcarce (Málaga), Jaime Molina (Numancia) and Javi Venta (Villarreal). Real Madrid's Michel Salgado also got his fifth yellow card and should have been suspended as well, but as the match against Real Sociedad had to be abandoned three minutes from the end due to a bomb scare, the cautions will not count until the game is finally completed on 5th January. (14.12.04)