A good week for Real Madrid, who not only closed the gap on rivals Barcelona in the league, but also caught up with them in the race for the Zamora prize. Whilst Víctor Valdés was letting in two from Atlético's Fernando Torres, Iker Casillas was keeping a clean sheet against Barça's city neighbours Espanyol (and at the same time dumping Kameni out of the running for the top goalkeeper award). Valdés and Casillas are neck and neck at the top of the table, with only Reina in with a shout after an uncharacteristically poor performance from Cañizares. Incidentally, Spain coach Luis Aragonés continues to pick Casillas and Cañizares as his first choice, although he did mention this week that had seriously thought about drafting in either Reina or Valdés for the match against San Marino.

Other than Casillas (and of course Leo Franco), there were clean sheets this weekend for Esteban, Sánchez Broto, and for Arnau (Málaga) and Moyà (Mallorca) in their sides' 0-0 draw. Arnau has still only let in one goal in the four games he has played to date. Elsewhere there was one change, Numancia's Juanma coming back in for Nuñez, and Zaragoza's Rubén Falcón made his first appearance this season after coming on for the last six minutes against Albacete following the sending off of Luis García. His opposite number Gaspercic makes it to our chart this week after completing his thirteenth game. (07.02.05)