Listen to the full interview via the Off The Ball Football Show podcast 

The title race in Spain has been evenly balanced between Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid since the start of 2014.

But this weekend saw a Real - in ominous form - get their noses in front after both their rivals lost meekly to Real Sociedad and Osasuna respectively.

We were joined by Madrid-based soccer correspondent Dermot Corrigan to discuss the main talking points from the weekend's action.

He thinks Barcelona manager Tata Martino's team selection and tactics backfired as he started with Alex Song and rested the alchemists of tiki taka like Xavi.

"There is a feeling that [Martino] doesn't get what Barcelona is all about," said Corrigan of a manager who he believes is trying his best in a poisonous atmosphere.

"He is trying to introduce new tactics which have worked really well in some games like the win over Manchester City. But he did leave Xavi on the bench, Puyol isn't playing much anymore and there's a feeling that he still doesn't get it."

Meanwhile Real Madrid are on a 26-game unbeaten run which is the second longest run in the club's illustrious history.

Corrigan believes Ancelotti deserves a huge amount of credit and also praised Luka Modric as "probably Real's best player this season."

Corrigan also addressed the "murmurs of discontent" aimed at Gareth Bale from the Real Madrid fans until he silenced them in spectacular fashion against Elche.

"He's playing on the right wing and cuts inside a lot on his left foot. Defenders have cottoned onto that pretty quickly so there's generally a midfielder there waiting to nick the ball off his toe. He's also not 100 per cent fit so he doesn't trust himself to go on the outside. Fans have cottoned on to that and they do like Jese, the young kid who's come through and is his competition now."   

Corrigan also touched on how Bale is fitting in with his team-mates and how his Spanish is coming along.