Bonjola! Here we go again then, Gijon looking to retain their La Liga crown whilst competing in the Champions League and to a much lesser extent, the Copa del Rey. Here’s where we pick up:

It’s our lowest priority up first and a much changed team thrashes lowly Alaves 4-0. We could do with building some proper momentum after a patchy start last week.

Definitely more like it as the first choice lads reassemble and thrash the Spanish Bank. A dull second half of course follows.

This isn’t a bad point on the face of it.

Very much in our hands, assuming Hajduk Split is the gimme 3 points it should be.

The dream of world domination is over for at least another 2 years as the B lads lose in the Copa. Idiots.

Zaragoza are often annoying but not today. A comprehensive victory where the often forgotten Tony Roberts scores twice.

He nets again in what should be a dead second leg against Alaves but from 4-0 up on aggregate, we’re 2-0 down before briefly getting our act together. It’s just not right this season, maybe they are growing tired of my ways.

The draws have been kind, you have to say.

That’s more like it. A routine away win at Osasuna keeps us going.

A crucial game in Milan which threatens to go sour when they are awarded a garbage penalty on 26 minutes. Never a penalty I could see from here. Suzanne Veiga saves the pen from Thierry and we make them pay to basically book our spot in the last 8 barring an embarrassment in Split, which let’s face it, we’ve all had at some point.

Sometimes Bakayoko decides to be unplayable. Today is one such day.

Espanyol are the surprising league leaders and we arrive at their home expecting to knock them off their perch. It’s not to be though, they’re impenetrable.

7 points to make up to them now. La Liga rivalling Serie A in the goals against column.

It’s tighter than expected in Split, but then isn’t that always the case before a split? I think I’ve done that joke to death now in the space of about 5 paragraphs. Anyway, eventually we sort ourselves out and win 2-0 to escape the group of death.

To come out of this unbeaten I feel is a real achievement.

An odder last 8 you will not see.

Second place Atletico are put in their place. Things were fever pitch towards the end, we could have scored about 10 in the last 10 minutes but we’ll settle for 2 and 4 in total. Good lads these, sometimes.

Absolute Christmas carnage here in Seville for the trip to Real Betis. Lucic, who has lost his place to Casper the friendly centre back, plays this one and gets sent off after five minutes. Suzanne saves the pen again and we reorganise to take a lead despite being a man down. They then join us in the 10 men club and Bakayoko does his thing. Very easy, we love life. Svensson out for 2 months.

The lovely Spanish Christmas break means we get nearly two weeks to prepare for lower liga (ha) opposition and we romp to a 1-0 win. Let’s hope there’s no shock in the return.

Deportivo have every chance of beating us when Mr Iceland gets dismissed after just 13 minutes. We’ve become quite adept at playing with 10 men and so it proves again as Sibbers banks a late winner.

Right, this guy will be ideal for us. Svensson is getting on a bit and has the B team written all over him. £7m well spent.

A tough game in Sociedad but we’ll take a point after being behind twice.

Do I need Denilson? No. But his contract is running down and he’s £3.8m. Welcome.

It takes him 13 minutes to make his mark. Into the semis of the Copa.

Ahhhh that’s a pity. But rather now than the final I suppose.

Oviedo are the latest opponent where Bakayoko decides to perform. Makes it look easy sometimes.

So just over the half way stage and we’re second. A 6 point gap but it’s not Barcelona we’re chasing down…them and Real Madrid fighting for the UEFA Cup places is not something I expected.

The B team are top but not by as much as I expected. Funny that with two B Teams in the top 4, 5th and 6th are in line for promotion.

That, dear reader, wraps us up for another week. It’s an enjoyable challenge but at times I am left pulling my hair out because we lose some games we really shouldn’t with the team we have. Let’s see if we can win the Champions League AND La Liga or maybe neither. Who knows with this lot. See you next week!