Barca reclaim top spot with 4-0 win

Barcelona returned to the top of the LaLiga table and wrested back control of the title race with a comfortable 4-0 home victory over 10-man Real Sociedad on Sunday.

Barcelona’s sixth straight league win moved them into first place with 57 points from 26 games, one ahead of Atletico Madrid. Defending champions Real Madrid are third with 54 points after a 2-1 defeat at Real Betis on Saturday.

“We’re happy about the way we played. It was important to win today, to go first in the table. We’re happy and we feel that we’re working really well,” said defender Ronald Araujo, who scored a goal and bagged an assist.

Sociedad attempted to catch Barca off guard straight after the whistle and thought they had taken the lead through Sergio Gomez’s deflected strike, only for the VAR to disallow the third-minute goal for offside.

The visitors’ early momentum then evaporated after they went down to 10 men when defender Aritz Elustondo bundled over Barcelona’s Dani Olmo in the 17th minute and was shown a red card as the last man.

It did not take long for Barcelona to make their advantage count. Hansi Flick’s side opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a fine team effort.