Eight clubs on eight points

Levante play Sevilla tonight. It is the next match in La Liga, it is 18th against 5th, and on most weeks you would skip past it. This week it is one of the few games that can actually change the shape of the table.

Not at the top. The top is settled in the only way October allows: Barcelona have played eight and won eight. Twenty-four points, plus twenty-seven, not a single draw. Five clear of Atlético Madrid and Real Betis, six clear of Real Madrid. You can argue about whether that lasts. You cannot argue with it.

The part of the table nobody mentions

Look further down and something genuinely strange has happened. Eight clubs — ninth to sixteenth — are on exactly eight points.

Eight points each. One win separates ninth from sixteenth, which is to say nothing separates them at all.

What I find more interesting is the goal-difference column, because it says these eight clubs have had completely different Septembers. Celta are plus two. Racing Santander and Osasuna are minus ten. Twelve goals apart, level on points, sitting seven places apart in a table that is pretending they are comparable.

Celta's route there is its own small story: one win, five draws, two defeats in eight. Five draws. They have been in almost every game they have played and won almost none of them. Málaga, bottom of the division, have gone further down the same road — four draws, four defeats, no wins, four points.

The table is lying slightly

Athletic Club are tenth on eight points, but they have played six matches. Levante, 18th, have also played six. Sevilla and Rayo have played seven. Everyone else has played eight.

So the middle of La Liga is not really a block of eight clubs on equal terms. It is a block of eight clubs where some have two more chances still in hand, and the games that settle it start tonight.

Which is why Levante v Sevilla matters

Sevilla are fifth on thirteen points from seven. Win tonight and they are on sixteen — three behind Atlético and Betis, two behind Real Madrid, with a game in hand on none of them but suddenly inside the argument for the Champions League places.

Levante are 18th on five from six. Win and they are on eight, which drops them into that eight-club pile-up and out of the relegation places. A defeat and they stay where they are with one of their two games in hand gone.

Two clubs, one match, and completely different things riding on it. That is usually the sign of a game worth watching rather than checking.

What I would not do yet

I would not call this a two-horse race, a crisis, or a title procession. Eight matches is eight matches. Barcelona have been excellent and are five points clear — that is a real lead, not a mirage, but it is October and Atlético, Betis and Real Madrid are all within one point of each other behind them.

The thing I will be watching is whether that block of eight starts to break apart over the next month, or whether La Liga has genuinely produced a middle class where nobody can beat anybody. Right now it looks like the second one, and that is unusual enough to be worth saying out loud.

Tonight's game, the full table and the rest of the weekend are on the La Liga table and fixtures page, which updates itself while matches are being played. Results from the other leagues are in the news section.