Preview: Reduced matchday 21 in Spain still eyecatching

It was a reduced match-day 21 in Spain as high winds caused the games between Deportivo la Coruna and Betis and Celta Vigo and Real Madrid to be postponed after both stadiums were damaged. However, the games allow us to draw some interesting conclusions.

1) Why does there always have to be controversy?

The region of Galicia was affected by winds of over 120 kilometers an hour on Friday night which caused damage to the roof of Deportivo's Riazor Stadium leading their game against Betis to be postponed with no complaints.

However, when the same winds also damaged Celta's Balaidos Stadium, Real Madrid continued to press for the game to be played, despite the fact winds on Saturday were too high for firemen to inspect the damage and those winds continued into Sunday morning.

The fact is with Celta Vigo playing in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey they were planning to field nine substitutes against Madrid who didn't want to miss the chance to play a weaker than usual Celta side despite the fact that the Vigo town hall, which owns the ground insisting that to do so would be a risk to public safety.

Real Madrid President, Florentino Perez repeatedly describes his club as "gentlemen", sadly their behavior over this affair tells a different story, because a 'gentleman' would not put a football match ahead public safety.

2) Neymar is in the best form of his life

While the margin of Barcelona's 3-0 home win against Athletic Club Bilbao is slightly misleading, given the errors of Athletic keeper, Gorka Iraizoz in the Camp Nou Stadium, there is one thing that cannot be doubted: Neymar is on fire.

The Brazilian may not have scored as many goals as some would expect, but he has swapped goals for assists as he showed by setting up Paco Alcacer for Barca's opening goal and giving Athletic right back, Oscar de Marcos, no slouch himself, a torrid afternoon in the Camp Nou.

Neymar has been criticized for provoking rivals, but trying too many tricks when the game is won, but in recent matches he has kept it simple and let his pace and skill do the talking, as a result it is no surprise we are now seeing the best Neymar of his career.

3) Sporting are in deep trouble

Sunday promised to be a good day in Sporting Gijon's El Molinon Stadium: The club had improved in their first two games under new coach 'Rubi', the stands were full and rival's Deportivo Alaves were immersed in the King's Cup semi-finals resting 9 first team regulars ahead of Wednesday's return leg at home to Celta Vigo.

Surely if there was a time for a home win, this was it.

Ninety minutes later and Sporting's hopes lay in ruins with a 4-2 home defeat (the score had been 3-0 with six minutes remaining). Rubi's side were outplayed from start to finish by Alaves' substitutes, managing just two shots on target all game and presenting a chaotic image in defense.

Worst of all nobody could say they players failed to give everything; the fact is they are just not good enough and that means they look odds on for relegation. Their only hope is if they can win next week against Leganes, anything else and Sporting can start to prepare for the Second division.

4) Sevilla's chance has slipped away

When Samir Nasri stepped up to take a penalty shortly after halftime in Sevilla's home game against Villarreal he maybe didn't know it was a key moment of the season, but it most certainly was. Villarreal keeper, Sergio Asenjo made a comfortable save from Nasri's poor spot kick and then produced two magnificent stops to deny Ben Yedder and Vicente Iborra to keep the score 0-0 and cause Sevilla to drop two vital points in the title race.

The result leaves Jorge Sampaoli's side three points behind Real Madrid with two more games played and probably means a charge that unless Madrid slip up badly in their two postponed games (against Valencia and Celta) the title is now beyond Sevilla's reach. Enditem