Granada go top of La Liga table after 1-0 win over Real Betis.
Granada continue to pleasantly surprise and are now alone in first place following a win over Real Betis.
Taking advantage of the postponed match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, Granada took care of business and won their sixth match of the season.
To put their achievement into context, when they were relegated back in 2016/17, it took them the entire season to accumulate the same amount of points.
Here's how @LaLigaEN looked in 2016/17 when Granada got relegated.
— The Spanish Football Podcast (@tsf_podcast) October 27, 2019
Then: 20 points from 38 games, bottom.
Now: 20 points from 10 games, TOP. pic.twitter.com/m7daGPnL6T
They’ve lost just two games all season. One on the road against Real Madrid and the other at home against Sevilla. In that span of time, Granada also picked up a huge win against Barcelona.
Neither the players nor the manager, Diego Martinez, are letting their position go to their heads.
The Guardian’s Sid Lowe writes, “Forget success, it’s about survival. Forget being first: even if it’s only a few days and has got a little asterisk by it, Diego Martinez says he’s not even looking at the table and nor are his players, busy doing what their manager says as usual.”
More remarkable still is that they started the season off on a slow start. They drew their first game against Villarreal and followed it up with the loss to Sevilla.
With midweek action, a handful of teams could overtake them should Granada stumble but they are not worried about that. All they are focused on is taking it a game at a time.
Their squad is made up of the same players that earned promotion demonstrating that spending a ton of money on new signings isn’t always the right path for newly promoted teams. Diego Martinez is working with what got them back up to first division and it’s working.
Some may point to the slow start of Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid as the reason why Granada find themselves top but that is not their concern. They are focused on themselves and the slow start of those three clubs is not something they care about.
Last season, Getafe was the league’s surprise team. While they did not top the league, they were fighting for a Champions League place until the very end of the season.
No one expects Granada to win the league. But for a newly promoted team to be ahead of the favorites and to have as many points now as they did when they were relegated is an achievement in and of itself.
Winning the league may not happen for Granada. Survival is the sole thing on their mind but if they continue to go at a similar pace, who’s to say they can’t fight for a place in Europe?