A RECORD POINTS TALLY IN THE TOP FLIGHT AFTER 29 MATCHES

With just nine matches remaining of the league season, there could well be another record-breaking season on the horizon for Sevilla FC. After last night's win against the league leaders at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, Julen Lopetegui's team equalled a club record, specifically, the number of points achieved in a top-flight season after 29 matches. Also, you do not have to go too far back in time to find the other two seasons. In both 2014/15 with Unai Emery and 2016/17 with Jorge Sampaoli, the team picked up 58 points in 29 matches, just as they have done this season. In fact, in terms of the club's best league finish in recent years, the third-placed finish with Juande Ramos in 2006/07, the team had three points less at this stage of the season. 

The record points tally for Sevilla in a LaLiga Santander season was set in the first of those two seasons, with the team picking up five wins, three draws and a defeat in the last nine matches of the 2014/15 season, bringing up a total of 76 points. Sampaoli was close to bettering that tally just two years later, but his four wins, two draws and three defeats brought up an eventual total of 72 points, the second best in the club's history. Although the team will be fully focused on next week's trip to Balaídos, they will be able to see that Unai Emery's record is certainly within reach. With 19 points from 27 required, which is certainly a challenge based on the fixture list, there is extra motivation for the Nervionenses in this sense. 

Returning to a comparison with those two successful seasons, the current Sevilla side is certainly different in some aspects. The goalscoring figures were higher in the two previous seasons, with 53 goals scored in 2014/15 and one fewer in 2016/17. This Sevilla side do not score as many goals, with 40 goals from 29 matches, but they also concede far fewer, with just 21 so far this season, compared to the 33 goals conceded under Emery and 34 under Sampaoli. Julen Lopetegui's side are also closer to the league leaders. In 2015, Unai Emery's team were fifth, thirteen points behind FC Barcelona, the eventual champions. This is a similar story to Sampaoli's season, with his fourth-placed Sevilla also thirteen points adrift of the eventual champions, Real Madrid. This season however, the Blanquirrojos are just eight points off top spot, and are within touching distance of both second and third.