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#1 Barcelona in cruise control in the title race
Real Madrid lost to Sociedad. Atletico and Sevilla played out a draw while dropping points. This left Barcelona a clear window to extend their lead and they did just that.
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The Blaugrana are now five points clear of the chasing pack. This comes as a big advantage to the Catalans in terms of their remaining season.
This means that they are certainly favorites to retain the league title but they could also focus on the bigger prizes.
A clear gap at the top when March arrives could be even better. Barcelona could, in fact, seal the deal in the league by March and then focus on the Champions League knockouts.
Ernesto Valverde could also utilize this opportunity to rest one of the starting players in the upcoming league games against Girona, Eibar etc.
Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Jordi Alba, all need a fair bit of rest with a lot of fixtures coming up. A three-point gap did not give breathing space to the Catalans but now they have it and could make most of it.
