Espanyol’s Víctor Sánchez is leaping clear of the pack after picking up his third red card of the season for a second bookable offence in the midweek cup tie at Real Madrid. Don Vito will have to serve out his latest one match ban in the first cup tie next season though as his team were eliminated by their hosts at the quarter final stage.

The big news of the weekend however was the red card for Cristiano Ronaldo in the weekend league match at Athletic Bilbao. Ronaldo appeared to hit Gurpegi with his hand in an off-the-ball incident (not so clear though in the slow motion replay), and then locked foreheads with Iturraspe in what resembled a stand-off between a couple of macho bulls! That cost him a red card, but he made matters worse by slapping the side of his face as he walked off, an insult in Spain which could be translated as “he (the referee?) has a lot of cheek!” There was a lot of speculation as to whether he would get a four match ban, which is serious enough to mean he must serve it out in all domestic club competitions (ergo missing the cup semi final versus Atlético), but in the end it was limited to three league games.

Life goes on for the mere mortals though, and there were three more sendings off this weekend, including one for Málaga coach Bernd Schuster, who was shown two yellow cards for protesting in the game against local rivals Sevilla. And that was even though his team won! Elsewhere Barcelona’s Jordi Alba got his marching orders for a second bookable offence in the surprise defeat against Valencia, and Elche’s Damián Suárez was shown his second red card of the current campaign for the same reason, although in his case his side held on for a victory. All will miss next weekend’s games (in Schuster’s case two) together with Koke (Atlético), Mascherano (Barcelona), Salva Sevilla (Betis), Duda (Málaga), Tito (Rayo), Coke (Sevilla), Ricardo Costa (Valencia), Javi Guerra (Valladolid) and Tomás Pina (Villarreal), who were all given their fifth cautions of the season. ( 05.02.14 )

(* suspension pending disciplinary meeting decision)

Villains Yellow cards Red cards (straight) Games banned Total points
Víctor Sánchez (Espanyol) 15 3 4* 22
Gálvez (Rayo Vallecano) 12 1 3 16
Cala (Sevilla) 9 2 (1) 3 15
Botía (Elche) 12 0 2 14
Filipe Luis (Atlético) 7 2 (1) 3 13
M'Bia (Sevilla) 7 2 (1) 3 13
Damián Suárez (Elche) 8 2 2* 12
Nono (Betis) 9 1 2 12
Borja (Getafe) 9 1 2 12
Saúl (Rayo Vallecano) 9 1 2 12
Ebert (Valladolid) 9 1 2 12
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) 11 0 1 12
Diogo Figueiras (Sevilla) 5 1 (1) 4 11
Coke (Sevilla) 6 1 (1) 3* 11
Hugo Mallo (Celta) 8 1 2 11
Arribas (Osasuna) 8 1 2 11
Christian (Almería) 5 2 (1) 2 10
Javi Guerra (Valladolid) 6 1 (1) 2* 10
Dubarbier (Almería) 7 1 2 10
Gato Silva (Osasuna) 7 1 2 10
Gabi (Atlético Madrid) 9 0 1 10
Jesús Gámez (Málaga) 9 0 1 10
Sergio Sánchez (Málaga) 9 0 1 10
Jaume Costa (Villarreal) 9 0 1 10