Another quiet weekend on the refereeing front, with most teams relatively content with the performances of the men-in-black (even though nobody over here will ever admit that)! There was some doubt as to whether Iglesias Villannueva should have given Neymar offside in Barça’s third goal against Real Sociedad (although most pundits thought he was correct), and he did pull up Rakitic for offside when he wasn’t. Gil Manzano meanwhile turned down a couple of penalty appeals by Cristiano Ronaldo, the second fairly clear when Eibar’s Juncà pushed him over, but then he did give a less obvious one later on when Lucas Vázquez fell over Dani García’s outstretched leg, Ronaldo assuaged by drilling home the spot kick. And international referee Carballo Velasco probably went a bit over the top with the yellow cards in the last match of the weekend between Sevilla and Valencia, the Ches suffering the consequences having Cancelo and then Javi Fuego sent off. Even so Carballo fell short of the tally set by rookie Sánchez Martínez in the Friday night game between Levante and Betis, twelve yellows and two reds. Now that’s more like the old days! (01.12.15)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Alvarez Izquierdo 7 58 6 64
Iglesias Villanueva 8 58 4 62
Gil Manzano 7 55 2 57
Velasco Carballo 8 52 5 57
González González 8 52 3 55
Sánchez Martínez 6 50 3 53
Del Cerro Grande 7 51 2 53
Clos Gómez 7 49 3 52
Prieto Iglesias 8 49 3 52
Pérez Montero 7 39 3 42