It’s a common enough saying but it remains true that all good things must come to an end. But in truth, Real Madrid manager José Mourinho may have felt that he could dodge such eventualities – after all he is the Special One.
However, after this round of La Liga fixtures, the Special One may not be feeling quite so special, now that his nine year unbeaten league home record as a manager is over.
You have to go back as far as 2002 when Mourinho, as Porto manager lost 3-2 at home to Beira Mar. In that time Mourinho has faced off against the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, AC Milan, Juventus and of course Barcelona over the course of 151 unbeaten matches.
This is perhaps what makes their 1-0 defeat at home to Sporting Gijon all the more surprising. The return of Gonzalo Higuain from injury did little to help a Madrid side badly missing in form duo Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Speaking after the match, Sergio Ramos remained philosophical, "You cannot blame the team in any way as the ball just unfortunately wouldn't go in today. It's very sad to lose when you have so many chances."
Unfortunate or not, it was Gijón’s Miguel de las Cuevas that took his chance, with eleven minutes remaining to set up a frenetic and ultimately frustrating finale for Mourinho’s men, as Real’s 100% home record ended.
The loss hurt all the more once news filtered through from Saturday night’s other game at the Madrigal. With Barcelona facing off against Villarreal away, many Madrista’s saw this weekend as the perfect chance to close the gap on an increasingly tired looking Barca.
But Pep Guardiola’s men displayed the ruthless efficiency previously associated with Mourinho’s teams, and secured a solid 1-0 win over the Yellow Submarine.
A tight first half was a fair reflection on Villarreal’s efforts, but Gerard Piqué’s second half winner eventually broke the home side. The Catalans closed Saturday night eight points clear in La Liga and with Mourinho seemingly admitting defeat in his pursuit of the title.
"Mathematics says the league is not lost” the Portuguese coach began “but objectively speaking if the gap goes from five to eight points we can say that it's almost impossible."
For the likes of perennial chasers Villarreal, Valencia and Sevilla, by comparison the league title has long been an impossibility.
That said Los Che took further steps towards securing Champions League qualification for next season. Los Blancos came up against a troublesome Getafe side though who took an early lead through Manu on 13 minutes.
Valencia did eventually equalise through Roberto Soldado just before half time. Thirty-one second half minutes then saw Soldado add three more goals to complete a memorable night for the Spaniard, before Adrián Sardinero reduced the deficit for the hosts.
The 4-2 win saw Unai Emery’s men move three points clear of Villarreal. The Yellow Submarine meanwhile remains nine points clear of 5th place, but have an ever-improving Sevilla side on their tail.
The Andalusians made short work of a Real Zaragoza side that continues to hover above the relegation zone, with Diego Perotti opening the scoring just before half time.
The visitors did briefly rally after half time with former Chelsea man Jirí Jarosík levelling the score. But a penalty each from Frederic Kanouté and Alvaro Negredo settled the match and went some way to expelling the ghost of the now departed Brazilian Luis Fabiano. The player had scored roughly a goal in every other game of his 222 club appearances, but he returned to his native home to join São Paulo a couple of weeks ago.
It proved to be a weekend of big team revivals, with Atlético Madrid coming from behind to win at Osasuna. Going into the game, Osasuna had the second best defence at home, with an average of 0.5 goals conceded per game, whilst El Atleti’s starting striker Diego Costa had scored just three times in 22 appearances.
Yet in a weekend when records were seemingly there to be broken, the 22 year old grabbed a quick fire hat trick to put the visitors back in contention for the Europa League places.
Kike Sola gave the home side the lead after a dominant opening half hour display from Osasuna. But just before the interval the key moment came, with Atleti’s young Brazilian Costa slamming home an equaliser to completely change the mood of the match.
Suddenly, Osasuna’s solid defence was looking anything but and in an electric start to the second half, Diego Costa took full advantage of some woeful play from the home side to score twice and in doing so, double his overall season’s tally for Quique Sanchez Flores’s team.
Jose Antonio Reyes then missed a penalty before Osasuna showed them how it was done with Javad Nekounam scoring from the spot to set up a potentially interesting finale, which was ultimately killed off after Sergio saw red for the home side.
The win saw Atleti move to within a point of Espanyol after the Barcelona based club fell to defeat at home to mid table Racing Santander.
It had started well enough for the hosts, with Dani Osvaldo scoring from the spot just before half time. But an inspired Santander side came back in the second half with Gonzolo Colsa levelling things five minutes into the half, before Giovani Dos Santos popped up late on to win it for the away team who moved seven points clear of relegation.
Two points behind them are fellow strugglers Deportivo La Coruña who also came from behind to win against Real Mallorca. Cameroon international Pierre Webó had given the visitors the lead just before the half hours mark. But a twelve-minute double salvaged the victory for Depor with Xisco and Noujoui Lassad getting on the score sheet.
With Almería facing off against Bilbao on Monday, fellow bottom three strugglers Málaga and Hércules had the chance to take an early advantage – but there were to be mixed fortunes for the two sides.
Hércules, under new coach Miroslav Đukić enjoyed a Real Madrid inspired win over another newly promoted side Real Sociedad. Forgotten man Javier Portillo, once the toast of Madrid’s youth academy, opened the scoring in the 70th minute, before Los Galacticos loanee Roysten Drenthe grabbed a brace to secure the win. A late goal from Diego Ifrán was a mere consolation and the club have now lost five of their last six games.
The win saw Hércules leapfrog Almería and more significantly Málaga, who suffered defeat at the ever-improving Levante. The mega rich Málaga had gone into the game off back-to-back wins in the league, but were 2-0 down after just nine minutes courtesy of goals from Christian Stuani and Rubén Suárez.
The visitors poured forward in search of a way back into the game and duly got it when Sebastián Fernández made it 2-1 on the hour mark. But just ten minutes later, their leaking defence was exposed once again at Stuani doubled his tally for the day and left Málaga deep in relegation trouble
In a weekend of big score lines and even bigger mathematical impossibilities, Málaga’s owner may just be starting to doubt the formula of “big money + big names = La Liga survival.”