Hay Liga?

If a week is a long time in politics, than three days is a long time in football. Just 72 hours after Real Madrid’s ten point lead over Barcelona was cut to eight by an exquisite Santi Cazorla free kick, Marco Senna ensured that the gap was narrowed even further last night. Now the difference between the two sides is just six points, a much more palpable figure for Pep Guardiola’s squad to digest.

Real were caught off guard on Sunday against a Malaga team which unexpectedly popped up out of the woodwork, six months after it had proclaimed to the world in pre-season that it was about to shake things up at the top. Despite taking a first half lead through Karim Benzema, Madrid couldn’t kill the game off and paid the price right at the death as a result, when a poorly positioned Iker Casillas could only look on helplessly as the league’s most prolific dead ball specialist, Cazorla (four goals from 21 attempts), found the top corner of the Madrid captain’s net. The eerie silence that followed the former Villarreal star’s equaliser gave the Bernabeu the feel of a morgue.

It was no secret that Madrid had faced some arduous tests in the weeks proceeding Sunday night’s game – the close call in Vallecas, followed by the equally thrilling and controversial victory over Betis, as well as the slug fest in the Coliseum – but these were on the road and, while scrappy and disjointed, they all resulted in three points for the league leaders.

The fact that Sunday night saw los blanco’s being pilfered of points on their own stomping ground -- a place where visiting teams are supposed to come to get their bellies tickled -- sent shock waves through the stands in Chamartín. Suddenly, the team that was making a habit of winning when playing poorly, was now just playing poorly. The fans couldn’t even bring themselves to boo.

Mourihno’s reaction to all this was to revert to Mourihno tactics. Out with the recently back-in-favour Kaká and in with the workhorse Lass Diarra for last night’s encounter away to Villarreal. A technical and creative maestro replaced by a disruptor, of the Claude Makelele mould. Never mind that the Yellow Submarine had lost its previous three matches and had just sacked its second manager of the season, the Madrid coach decided that it was more important to prevent the home team from playing rather than taking the game to them. Thus a triumvirate made up of Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira and Lass was favoured over pairing Özil and Kaka together.

The Special One stuck to his defensive guns even when Lass picked up a needless booking early on. Aware that the Frenchman is nowhere near as effective when he’s on a yellow, Mou choose to change him for Callejón. Admittedly this was more of a positive move but just as the tall haired midfielder was getting into the swing of things, a clumsy challenge from Bruno meant the sub had to come off at the break. Cue Hamit Altintop. The Turkish enigma came on as a bemused looking bench made up of Higuaín, Kaká and Esteban Granero, looked on. Madrid went ahead through a moment of telepathic brilliance between Özil and Ronlado, in an otherwise turgid, stop-start spectacle.

The visitors were punished though when (you guessed it) Altintop conceded a free kick on the edge of Madrid’s box, which Senna duly dispatched into the bottom right hand corner of Casillas’ net, with the keeper being guilty of poor positioning again.

The chaos that ensued after that was farcical. First Ramos became the most sent off player in Real Madrid’s history (14 reds) when he picked up a second booking for recklessly mauling Nilmar in a 50/50. He was quickly followed by Özil who clapped his way into the book, just as the team’s physio, Rui Faria had done earlier on. After that Mou got in on the act, as did Pepe who couldn’t keep his grievances with referee Paradas Ramero to himself in the tunnel after the final whistle. Even the usually angelic Ronaldo felt the team was hard done by and made his disapproval with the referee’s performance clear with a hand gesture that translates as “robbery”.

Madrid’s disgust with the referee was so venomous that neither the manager nor the assistant, Karanka, would make an appearance in the post-match press conference for fear of what they might say. But was this just a diversion? While the ref did have a nightmare, it went both ways. The harsh booking Pepe received for simulation, when his mouth was bleeding, was cancelled out by two penalty shouts for Villarreal which weren’t awarded.

Earlier on in the night, Marcelo Bielsa made no qualms about taking the rap for his Athletic side losing to Atlético Madrid, “I feel especially responsible for the defeat because the decisions I made didn’t solve any of the problems I intended to correct, which weakened the team”. A far cry from the Madrid coach’s refusal to own up to things.

Last week when los blancos seemed untouchable, the Catalan press resorted to playing the victim, claiming that referees were unfairly favouring Barca’s eternal rival. Mundo Deportivo went with the headline “Mano Blanca” (White Hand) to highlight the five “clear-cut” (non)decisions that were to blame for the ten point gap.  Now with the past four days events behind him, Mou is probably attempting to muster up his own conspiracy theories in an attempt to galvanise his squad. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Apparently dignity is a small price to pay where winning the league is concerned. However, with only six points separating first and second, the shouts of “Hay Liga” (League On) that had most of us rolling our eyes on Sunday definitely carry more weight now, especially when you factor in that Real still have to play Osasuna, Atlético, Athletic and, of course, Barca away.

The mask has slipped for Madrid in the past few days and more gun hoe performances like last night are only going to rattle the team further during the run-in. It seems as though Mou’s paranoia is getting the better of him or maybe it’s a case that Guardiola’s “there’s no way we’re catching Madrid” remarks were an ingenious mind trick all along?