LaLiga standings September 21 - Barcelona have won all seven and lead by five, with nothing clinched yet

Barcelona have played seven matches and won all seven. That is 21 points out of 21, with 31 goals scored and seven conceded. The engine that builds the table on this site still puts their reachable range at first to twentieth, and it puts all 19 clubs behind them in exactly the same range.

Every number here comes from the September 21 update. Sixty-nine of the season's 380 matches have been played. Eighteen clubs have played seven of their 38, while Athletic Club and Levante have played six. The most recent results in the table are Monday's three: Valencia 2-3 Real Sociedad, Deportivo La Coruna 1-1 Real Betis and Villarreal 3-1 Levante. The next fixtures on the schedule are on October 10.

Barcelona lead Atletico Madrid and Real Betis by five points and Real Madrid by six. Barcelona have 21, Atletico and Betis 16 each, Real Madrid 15. Atletico beat Real Madrid 2-1 on September 20, which is how the two Madrid clubs ended up on either side of Betis, and Betis then drew 1-1 at Deportivo on Monday. Sevilla are fifth on 13, a day after losing 1-3 at home to Barcelona. Three points cover second place to fifth.

Barcelona have 31 matches left and 93 points still available, for a ceiling of 114. Their title clinch number is 89, the smallest further total that makes them champions whatever anyone else does. Eighty-nine points from 31 matches means dropping four at most, something like 29 wins and two draws. Nobody else in the division has a title clinch number at all. Atletico and Betis would reach 109 by winning everything they have left, Real Madrid 108, and every one of those totals sits inside what Barcelona can still reach.

The top four places carry the Champions League, and the clinch numbers for them are barely smaller. Barcelona need 86 of their remaining 93, so at most seven dropped points. Atletico and Betis need 91, which is 30 wins and a draw and nothing worse. Real Madrid's number is 92, and 31 matches cannot produce exactly 92 points: 30 wins and a draw is 91, and the next total above that is 93, so in practice Madrid would have to win all 31. All four of those numbers point at the same finishing total of 107. From fifth place down the column is empty. Sevilla's ceiling is 106 and four clubs can still finish at 106 or better, so even a perfect run would not guarantee them a top-four place today.

Nothing has closed in the other direction either. None of the top four has a tragic number for a top-four finish. Every club below them does, and every one of those numbers is close to a whole season. Sevilla's is 31, which is all 31 of their remaining matches. Alaves, Deportivo, Real Sociedad and Athletic Club are on 30. Malaga are bottom with three points from seven and their number is 28, meaning they could lose 27 of their remaining 31 and a top-four finish would still be arithmetically open. The title tragic numbers have the same shape: 30 for Atletico, Betis and Real Madrid, 29 for Sevilla, 26 for the bottom three.

The relegation end is where the asymmetry is easiest to see. Three clubs go down. Elche have five points, Valencia four, Malaga three, and none of the three has a safety clinch number. Elche would finish on 98 by winning all 31 of their remaining matches, and 17 other clubs can still reach 98 or better, so even a flawless run would not guarantee survival as of today. Only Valencia and Malaga have a relegation tragic number, and both are 31, the whole rest of their season: they would have to lose every remaining match before relegation became certain. Elche have no relegation tragic number at all, because three clubs can still finish level with them or below them. Barcelona, for scale, need 78 more points to be mathematically safe from relegation, which is the same finishing total of 99 that every other club with a safety number is chasing.

What to watch next. LaLiga does not play again until October 10, when Atletico Madrid travel to sixth-placed Alaves and Malaga host Espanyol still looking for a first win of the season, with three draws and four defeats in seven. Rayo Vallecano host Athletic Club the same day. On October 11 Barcelona host Getafe, Real Madrid host Villarreal and Real Sociedad host Deportivo. Racing Santander host Valencia on October 12, 16th against 19th, and Valencia have four goals in seven matches, more only than Malaga's three.

Update, October 14: Barcelona beat Getafe 3-0 on October 11 and have now won all eight: 24 points, 34 goals scored and seven conceded. Atletico, Betis and Real Madrid also won, so the gaps are still five points to Atletico and Betis and six to Real Madrid. Barcelona's title clinch number is 86, their top-four number 81 and their safety number 73. Malaga drew 1-1 with Espanyol and are still without a win, four draws and four defeats. Nothing is clinched in either direction, and every club's reachable range still runs from first to twentieth. Our piece on the round is at.

How to read these numbers. A clinch number is the smallest number of further points that guarantees the outcome even if every rival wins every match it has left. A tragic number is the number of further defeats after which the outcome is impossible even if the club takes everything else on offer. A reachable range is the highest and lowest finishing position still arithmetically available. Nothing is ever settled on a tie, in either direction: a rival who can only draw level with us still blocks our clinch, and a rival we can only draw level with does not eliminate us. One consequence is that our clinch can appear a day later than the official one. Goal difference, head to head records and the league's own tiebreakers are not part of the calculation. The live table is at, the clinch and tragic columns at, the scenario tool at, the method at, and Barcelona's team page at.