A tricky weekend for referees, with controversial decisions inter-alia in the games involving the top three teams. Alvarez Izquierdo let Marcelo off a second yellow card on Friday evening when he gave away a penalty on Almería’s Edgar, although as Casillas saved the spot kick and Real Madrid ran out 1-4 winners it probably wouldn’t have changed the result much. The following day Bikandi Garrido possibly deprived Getafe of a rare win against Barcelona when blew the final whistle just as Alvaro got free in front of goal, and he also turned down fairly clear penalty appeals at either end for hands by Dani Alves and Valera. And on Sunday Pérez Montero upset Diego Simeone when he ruled out a headed goal by Mandzukic for what he deemed to be a foul on Villarreal’s Mario, even though it seems the defender just got himself tangled up in his own legs. The visitors went on to win 0-1, although to be fair (or unfair?) to the referee, he waved away a perfectly good penalty appeal for hands by Gabi earlier on. Elsewhere Celta’s Charles thought he had scored his side’s first goal in five games when he found the net early on at Málaga, but Del Cerro Grande ruled it out for unknown reasons (he possibly thought that Santi Mina had handled the ball in the build up, which he didn’t)? Quite a week, and we will be hoping that our men in black show a bit more Christmas spirit in the last round of games of the year next weekend! (17.12.14)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Alvarez Izquierdo 9 78 3 81
Estrada Fernández 10 70 5 75
Mateu Lahoz 8 59 5 64
Jaime Latre 9 57 4 61
Fernández Borbolán 10 55 3 58
Velasco Carballo 8 54 2 56
Melero López 9 55 1 56
Teixeira Vitienes, J.A. 8 50 5 55
Hernández Hernández 9 51 2 53
Teixeira Vitienes, F. 8 46 5 51