Posted by Joseph Zucker

1. Barca on the back burner
Any discussion of Gameweek 22 must begin with Barcelona’s loss against Osasuna on Saturday. It was shocking enough for the Catalans to lose, but the way they did was very surprising. Osasuna didn’t back down whatsoever and outplayed Barcelona for much of the game. Gerard Piqué in particular had a game to forget. Barcelona supporters might argue that their club should have earned a draw after Alexis Sánchez’s goal. However, it did look as if the linesman got the call right as Sergi Roberto appeared to have headed the ball on to Sánchez. It’s only Barcelona’s second loss of the season, but their away form has really done them in this year. They’ve only picked up 17 out of a possible 33 points outside the Nou Camp.

This of course opens the door for Real Madrid to finally knock off their hated rivals. Los Blancos haven’t won La Liga since 2007-08, which isn’t long for most clubs, but in Madrid it seems so long ago Francisco Franco was in charge. Madrid is now 10 points clear at the top of the table. Even a loss to Barcelona won’t do much damage to Real Madrid’s title charge. Even Ronaldo looks to be getting the better of his Barca counterpart, Lionel Messi. Ronaldo notched another hat trick this week, his sixth of the season. With an almost certain league title to his 2012 resume, a strong showing in the 2012 Euros could mean a Ballon d’Or for Ronaldo and supplanting Messi as the best player on the planet.

2. Athletic Bilbao suffers more injury time despair
For the second week in a row, Athletic Bilbao let in an injury time goal. Give them the three points they have dropped over the last two weeks and they would be sitting in fourth place right now. It’s definitely not time to panic in Bilbao, but sooner or later the teams ahead of them are going to start winning matches again. It’s hard not to argue that the sending off of Javi Martínez didn’t really affect them in this week’s match. With the man advantage, Real Betis really attacked Bilbao and the winning goal seemed to coming sooner or later. It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle their Europa League match against Lokomotiv Moscow on Thursday. Bilbao would love to win a European league, but they have a big match with Málaga three days later. Bielsa played many of his starters in a Copa del Rey fixture against Mirandes last Tuesday and it really seemed to affect the players against Betis on Saturday as they seemed to have tired out as the match worn on.

This is the second week in a row that Bilbao had a golden opportunity to claim a Champions League spot and not look back. Qualifying for the top league in Europe could go a long way in helping to keep players like Martínez and Fernando Llorente with the club. I really like what Marcelo Bielsa is doing with Athletic Bilbao and it would be very nice to see them have a shot at the highest level.

3. Sevilla continues free fall
New manager Michel could do nothing to help Sevilla as they lost to Real Sociedad, 2-0, on Monday. The club is now winless in its last eight matches and has only won twice in their last 14 matches. This is a club that finished in fifth place last year, four points away from Champions League qualification. Now they sit three points away from relegation. It was only Michael’s first game in charge of Sevilla, so it’s unclear whether or not the club will get the patented new manager bump.

There’s obviously some talent still at Sevilla and plenty of time for Michel to right the ship. With one or two results, they could turn their entire season around. The middle of the table is packed pretty tight so a couple of wins could put them right back into the Champions League hunt. They have Osasuna on Saturday, which is a game Sevilla can take all three points from. Then the following Sunday, they face Valencia at the Estadio Mestalla. It will be tough to get a good result, but if they do, it could be the spark Sevilla so dearly needs to get going.

4. The race for fourth still wide open
Another week and yet more failed opportunities for any club to really capitalize the results around them and overtake Levante for fourth place. Every week it seems like Levante will finally lose their grip on the spot. They have played well all year, but realistically, they don’t look like they can hold off the rest of the season. The big winners of the week were Málaga and Osasuna. With their wins, they jumped into the seventh and eighth spots, respectively. Each are only a point off fourth. The biggest loser has to be Espanyol. Following last weekend’s dramatic draw with Athletic Bilbao, they had a golden opportunity to go three points clear of Levante, but they lost to Real Zaragoza, who reside at the bottom of the table and are surely a lock for relegation.

For all the talk of how Madrid and Barcelona dominate the league, this race for fourth is incredibly interesting. For the record, I don’t see anyone really challenging Valencia for third since 17th-place Granada is seven points off Levante in fourth, and eight points separate Levante and Valencia. There are quite a few storylines to follow with the clubs between fourth and ninth. No one would have possibly expected either Levante or Espanyol to be anywhere near the Champions League before the season, so it would be quite a welcome surprise to either of them qualify. For Málaga, failure to qualify would be a step back for the project that’s in place. If they can qualify, the added income for Europe could ease them a little closer to become a serious challenger for Madrid or Barcelona. I had previously mentioned what qualification could do for Bilbao. And for Atlético Madrid, it would be a significant turnaround from the state the club was in under Gregorio Manzano. Earlier in the season, it would have been almost unthinkable for Atleti to even sniff fourth place.