Can anyone top Real and Barca?

One of the best things about La Liga in recent years has been that anyone could challenge for the league. We've seen Deportivo and Valencia win it in the recent past and several smaller teams such as Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Villerreal challenge until the very end.

In the past 5 years though the league is being dominated more and more by the 'big two' of Real Madrid and Barcelona and there is a danger of the league slipping into the same state as the Premier League and several other big European Leagues with the top few already known before a ball is kicked.

So can anyone realistically challenge their dominance in the next few years or will it become another boring predictable league?

Yes, they can. Valencia used to be every bit as strong, and last season before everything went wrong for Sevilla, i thought they were going to be the next big thing in Spain and realistically challenge for years to come. However, a series of disasters have completely ruined that.

I would like to think that my team Atletico Madrid will be strong enough to challenge for la liga
in the next couple of years if we can keep our best players and carry on building up the team....

We did actually win the title in the recent past also and great things were expected but the next season
a complete disaster happened and we were relegated to the second division which was quite shocking!

Atletico have a big following in Spain and our home ground is never an easy place for visiting sides
to come and play with the passionate crowd we have in the calderon and I'm optimistic for next season.

I would love to see Villareal carry on next season challenging the big two and I think they have the
players to do it...What this club have achieved for such a small town is quite incredible in my opinion....
They were even happy to get rid of Juan Riquelme last season and send him back to Argentina!!

I think it will be a while until Valencia can mount a serious challenge for the title after all the turmoil
of last season but I wouldn't rule out Sevilla if they can manage to keep hold of their best players......

I think it doesn't matter who wins La Liga (in matters of competitivity), what matters is that there are several teams challenging for it until the last games. And it has noramlly happened in the spanish league...
Next year Real and Barcelona will once again the teams to beat, but I'm sure teams like Villarreal, Sevilla and Atletico will make things complicated for both teams.

Villareal already came on top of Barca, Valencia, Sevilla were all challengers, next season it's probably going to be Madrid or Barca

Yes they can, as Real and Barcelona build such volatile and attack heavy teams, it always leaves the door open to organised and efficient teams like Villarreal, Valencia and Sevilla.

Real Madrid have had a strong defence this last season, being the team that has conceded less goals in the championship (something that almost haven't happened in the last 15 years).

Yeah I think Real have learnt their lesson that no matter who you have up front everyone needs to be able to defend.

Pepe has really been a great acquisition for Real Madrid, but sadly Cannavaro will have to leave Madrid soon.