What happened here then? Here we are, going along calmly, when - boomba!! - the second highest number of red cards in one weekend since the turn of the millennium! There were no less than eleven players sent off in the latest round of matches, starting with Betis defender Nano, who was sent off after catching Real Madrid's Diarra with a flying elbow on Saturday evening. Ten more followed on Sunday, including three at Getafe, where Athletic Bilbao's Aduriz was the first to go for supposedly pushing an opponent in the face, and Contra and Murillo joined him in a luke warm bath after picking up second bookings in the second half.

Elsewhere Sevilla were well on their way to keeping up their six month unbeaten record at Atlético Madrid before a card happy referee sent off their two central defenders Escudé and Javi Navarro for second bookable offences. After that they lost the plot and the game. Two red cards as well in the match between Levante and Deportivo, where local midfielder Berson got his marching orders just before the break for apparently insulting a linesman (in French?) and numbers were evened up when Estoyanoff got a second yellow card later on for a high tackle.

Zaragoza's Gabi Milito is back in the villains table after getting himself sent off for handling in the area, not the best of ideas when Riquelme is the man who takes the penalties. Celta's Angel saw red for a hard tackle on Osasuna's Raúl García, and Espanyol's Riera was also sent off for a second bookable offence late in the game at Mallorca. A busy week ahead for the disciplinary committee! (26.09.06)