Familiar saviours as Marcelino set to return: LaLiga Matchday 13 recap

The culmination of Matchday 13 means we are a third of the way through the season, and there are plenty of things to make pre-season predictions look rather silly.

Matt Clark (@MattClark_08) and Paco Polit (@pacopolitENG) review a goal-filled weekend which saw every team score, contributing to 3.66 goals per game, four comebacks from the top five, and familiar heroes coming to the rescue.

The Seville Derby may not have been too high on quality, but the narratives stayed strong. All square at the Sánchez-Pizjuán courtesy of Ivan Rakitić.

The game of the weekend was on Friday in Bilbao, as Athletic grabbed a late winner in a seven-goal thriller to condemn Celta to yet another defeat.

Atleti had to come from behind too, but succeeded in defeating managerless Villarreal to extend their home winning run. Of course Antoine Griezmann was at the heart of things. Marcelino is seemingly all but in the door, and Paco says he should be given the keys to the Submarine hatch.

The leaders are still Girona, who once again trailed at Míchel's old stomping ground but turned it around. Their powers of recovery are almost as impressive as their league position.

In Part Two we discuss the other two horses in the race, both of whom won but in very contrasting circumstances.

Robert Lewandowski made his own scoring return to wake Barça up from their slump while Real Madrid won without Jude Bellingham. Xavi still has plenty of issues to solve, but Madrid appear to have passed this test with flying colours.

We round up the remainder of the action before assessing the table as it stands.

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