It was a weekend for defenses in La Liga as only 17 goals were scored, making it one of the lowest scoring rounds of the season so far. 

Barcelona's lead over Real Madrid eroded this weekend after they drew with Espanyol in the first-ever derby held at Cornellà- El Prat. Barca lost their rhythm and ended up playing with ten men after Dani Alves was sent off in the 60th minute. Mauricio Pochettino's side executed their strategy to near perfections as they limited the amount of touches Xavi had as well as the opportunities Barca had on goal.

Lionel Messi was a non-factor as the midfield and backline of Espanyol played as if their lives depended on it. They were able to generate the more dangerous options on goal and left the Blaugrana regretting the loss of two points.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid were able to defeat Valencia at home courtesy of a goal by their dynamic duo- Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuaín. Madrid pressured César Sánchez consistently and it took 25 minutes to break the deadlock as Higuaín

Sevilla came back from their loss to Tenerife as they defeated a sorry Sporting Gijón side 3-0. Sevilla defender Cala has become one of the new young stars that has emerged in the league in this tail-end scoring for a third consecutive week.  Add to that goals by Frédéric Kanouté and Luis Fabiano and they went into Champions League positions once again.  They will have to wait for Monday's Mallorca- Osasuna match where they will find out if they will stay there.

Tenerife are slowly able to see the surface and find themselves just a point behind Málaga as they seem to have the best chance to avoid relegation.  Their 3-2 win against Getafe was a shot of adrenaline that no team sandwiching them had.  Nino came up with an important hat-trick to propel team to the win.  What was most historic about the match was that Nino scored the 62,000th goal in La Liga history.