Only two of the ten away teams managed to score in the first round of games following the winter break, and there were no less than ten clean sheets in all. Víctor Valdés was one of those, the Barcelona keeper making his first appearance after a six-week injury lay-off, but he remains behind Courtois in the rankings after the Atlético keeper also kept his goals against column to zero. Everything comes to a head next weekend though when Barça visit the Calderón stadium in the last game of the first half of the season, a fixture which will be repeated nineteen weekends after that in the Nou Camp, and which may well decide who will be league champions this year.

Otherwise however there clean sheets for the three Diegos, Mariño (Valladolid), Alves (Valencia) and López (Real Madrid), as well as for Sara (Betis), Esteban (Almería), Beto (Sevilla), Andrés (Osasuna) and Bravo (Real Sociedad). Alves came in for Guaita after Juan Antonio Pizzi took over the reins at the Mestalla stadium, and there were two other goalkeeping changes, Greek international Karnezis making his league debut for Granada at Almería after Roberto pulled out with a stomach upset, and Rayo’s Cobeño preferred to Rubén in the Monday night game against Villarreal. Not that it helped much as they let in eight goals between them! (07.01.14)

Zamoras Games played Goals against Difference
Courtois (Atlético) 18 11 -7
Valdés (Barcelona) 14 8 -6
Asenjo (Villarreal) 18 20 +2
Iraizoz (Athletic Bilbao) 14 16 +2
Diego López (Real Madrid) 18 21 +3
Caballero (Málaga) 18 23 +5
Bravo (Real Sociedad) 18 23 +5
Roberto (Granada) 17 22 +5
Manu Herrera (Elche) 15 20 +5
Diego Alves (Valencia) 12 17 +5
Casilla (Espanyol) 18 24 +6
Keylor Navas (Levante) 16 23 +7
Guillermo Sara (Betis) 14 22 +8
Andrés (Osasuna) 18 28 +10
Beto (Sevilla) 17 27 +10
Mariño (Valladolid) 18 29 +11
Yoel (Celta) 18 30 +12
Moyà (Getafe) 18 30 +12