Hello I am Andy Brassell welcome back to Guardian Football talking points.
Plenty to discuss from the weekend just gone in Spain.
Real Madrid are starting to look more and more comfortable at the top of La Liga, also
the spotlight today is also on an interesting new arrival of David Moyes becoming the new
coach of Real Sociedad.
It was a bad weekend for Valencia, Sevilla and for champions Atletico.
Valencia were actually a little lucky to get a point from their home game against Athletic
Bilbao who are really improving despite the fact they were not able to have their star
striker Aduriz - formerly of Valencia - to have a go.
Sevilla were winning for a lot of their game against Levante but a terrible mistake by
the usually quite reliable Beto who gave the visitors a point.
Meanwhile, Atletico took the lead through Mario Mandzucic but couldn't hold on and then
manager-less Real Sociedad - as they were - came back to win that game and got a much-needed
three points and with Celta Vigo - who got that tremendous win in the Nou Camp last week
- only drawing 0-0 with Granada, who aren't in great form themselves, it makes you wonder.
I was so excited about a real battle at the top and that prospect is looking a little
further away now, and maybe it will just be Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Now Real Madrid are still leaders, worthy 5-1 winners over Rayo Vallecano their near-neighbours
at the Bernabaeu, but it wasn't without a few little controversies.
At 2-1 up the visitors had a really good looking goal ruled out for an apparent offside and
then when it got a little bit further down the line the fourth goal from Benzema clearly
was offside.
Now Rayo head coach Paco was understandably miffed by this saying Real Madrid didn't need
any little helping hands but it's really all going for them at the moment.
Now Suarez was brought on as a second half substitute at Almeria along with Neymar and
my goodness, what a substitutes bench that is.
Luis Enrique really needed to make a change because Barca were rancid in the first half.
They went a goal down and it was deserved for the home side and Enrique has been under
a lot of pressure recently after those successive league defeats, and Suarez really came through
for him here.
He worked so hard and set up both goals, but that industry was the most noticeable thing
about his game.
The question of how he would fit in with the pairing of Messi and Neymar overshadowed that
but now we realise there is someone who is fully up to speed, he could have scored himself
and he is going to be a huge asset going into the winter.
Yes the deal has finally been sealed, David Moyes has agreed to become the new manager
of Real Sociedad who takes over from Arrasate who was fired last week.
The negotiations were quite protracted, partly because Moyes wanted a longer contract - he
was looking for something a bit longer than the 18 months that he has actually been given.
He is nevertheless the highest paid manager in Sociedad history on 2 million euros a season
and they will expect something from that.
They know what to expect and of course they are looking at his work at Everton and they
are hoping he will bring some of the same British qualities as John Toshack brought
when he first arrived in 1985.
Now La Real differ a little bit from their basque near-neighbours Athletic Bilbao who
of course only sign Basque players.
That changed in 1989 when John Aldridge was brought over and more overseas players followed.
It will be interesting to see what David Moyes does in the transfer window in January although
he is not going to be able to have a lot of cash so he will have to be quite canny and
it is going to be a tough job because they are in the bottom three.
Nevertheless, it is a great platform
for him to be able to show that he is still an important manager.