Levante unmasked?

"Valencia realised that if you come quickly out of the blocks against Levante they are going to be in trouble."
Guillem Balague Quotes of the week

It was the hosts' second defeat on the spin, with some suggesting they may have been found out.

Guillem Balague told Revista: "Valencia realised that if you come quickly out of the blocks against Levante - in the same way that Sporting did against them the previous week - they are going to be in trouble.

"And that's what Valencia did from the beginning, they just applied lots of pressure to the men on the ball and every time they had the ball they applied lots of pace, they were very direct.

"Tino Costa in the centre of midfield came in and did all right, after (coach) Unai Emery decided to give him a bit of a lesson because he wasn't acting very well in training and told him off.

"Well he's reacted and reacted very well. He made the team play direct football and Levante couldn't cope with that."

Graham Hunter said: "Levante have brilliant heart and experience but they don't have too many technical players who can beat a man. If you can put that team under pressure constantly, you can replicate the result Valencia got.

"But in terms of fearing Levante dropping down the league like a stone - absolutely not."

No chance

Hunter added: "I was at Valencia's Champions League game in the week and bumped into David Albelda and he said 'The key thing for us is to spread the goals around, we can't rely on Salgado all the time' and, bingo, up comes Costa with a goal."

Ossie Ardiles dismissed the notion that Valencia could threaten the Real Madrid-Barcelona stranglehold at the top, saying: "They have no chance of breaking into the top two.

"They are a very good team, no doubt about it, but the difference between Real Madrid and Barcelona and the rest is huge. They are the two best teams in the world."

At the other end of the table, bottom side Getafe hauled themselves out of the drop zone with a surprise 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid, despite having a man sent off.

Total disaster

Ardiles admitted: "Athletico are not playing very well at all. A lot was expected at them of the beginning of the season but it is not happening and suddenly Gregorio Manzano (the coach) is under a lot of pressure.

"This is the beauty of football. It should be easy playing with one player more but sometimes it is not."

Balague said: "It's terrible. Manzano said it was a total disaster after the game and he was kind of blaming the players for it. But they are a team with no soul, no aggression, no belief. He was also given a vote of confidence by the board, so..."

Real Sociedad replaced Getafe at the bottom and and Balague predicted: "Philipe Montanier will be given one more game against Espanol on Sunday morning. If he doesn't get the three points and is convincing in the victory, he will be sacked."

Manuel Pellegrini is another coach under pressure at big-spending Malaga, with Saturday's 0-0 draw at Real Betis leaving them sixth in La Liga.

Hunter said: "Given all the investment, they look flat, they look disjointed, they can't create, they lack pace, they're not scoring goals.

"I saw Pellegrini backstage at Levante and he looked like a ghost. The owners have told him they've got faith in him at the moment. He's doing OK and I think he might get to the winter break and buy some players, but they need much more."

Ardiles added: "They are sixth in the league so this is a bit premature, but the supporters are not happy at all with Pellegrini and the team is not playing well so it's a cause for concern."