A few hours before, Real Madrid had drawn a desperately dull match in Santander 0-0 against Racing; now Valencia had drawn 2-2 with Barcelona in a fantastic, frenetic and fascinating game. After the opening weekend, it had appeared all over already: Madrid had won 6-0 and Barcelona 5-0. A revolution was launched and immediately crushed. Now, four weeks into the season, La Liga has a very different look. Madrid have dropped five of the last six points, Barcelona four of the last nine. Never mind the top two, they're not even in the top three. On Thursday morning Real Madrid sit in seventh and Barcelona are fourth. Above them, Real Betis – who will go top if they get a point against Real Zaragoza – and Málaga. And above them, sitting unbeaten, Valencia. So much for a two-team league.
Now, a little advice from Harvey Keitel wouldn't go amiss. At this stage last season, Barcelona were also fourth; two weeks later, Valencia were top and Real Madrid third. And the league finished the way it finished. But you could understand the enthusiasm. Valencia, after all, have done it again. This summer Juan Mata departed. Economic and footballing reality bites. Like Sergio Agüero, his departure underlined that the best players at Spain's other clubs have one of two choices: sign for Madrid or Barcelona or leave the country. It also followed a trend; Mata followed David Silva and David Villa out of Mestalla. Raúl Albiol and Carlos Marchena had gone too: none of Valencia's World Cup winners are left.
Yet by the time next summer's European Championship comes round, Valencia may once again have players in the Spain squad. Roberto Soldado has scored 17 in his last 13 games, giving him the best goals-per-game ratio of any Spanish striker in 2011, and both Jordi Alba and Sergio Canales could get opportunities. Nor are they alone. Valencia have again sold their best player for a huge profit – they have made €120m (£105m) on Silva, Villa, Albiol and Mata alone – and reinvested the money wisely, while also continuing to service their debt. They will certainly miss Mata, just as they missed Villa and Silva but they have once again rebuilt intelligently.
In total, 14 players left this summer, but eight came in. The average age dropped from 28 to 24 – the departure of the 40-year-old goalkeeper César Sánchez helped – and the overall impression is of a squad that has got stronger. The centre-backs Edil Rami and Víctor Ruiz in particular have given them the solidity that they lacked, complementing each other well and proving to be a hugely effective partnership, and they have been joined by Canales, Diego Alves and Dani Parejo. Meanwhile, Ever Banega, Tino Costa and Mehmet Topal are still around. Even Miguel has stayed – and he is promising to be good too.
Just as importantly, the manager, Unai Emery, is still around. That alone is a miracle. Every year, Valencia debate whether or not to renew Emery's contract and every year they do. There always seem to be doubts – occasionally Emery fuels them with defensive changes that do not please supporters or directors – and this summer he took a pay cut to continue. Yet this is his fourth season at Mestalla and only two coaches have ever lasted as long. Every year he has to rebuild his side. Every year, he succeeds too.
So now Valencia sit top. But it is not just that they are top that has fuelled the optimism, it is how they got there and how they stayed there: beating Atlético Madrid, Sporting and Racing and now this.
Last season Valencia were top until they faced Barcelona. Unluckily beaten 2-1 at the Camp Nou, they lost the leadership of the league and never got it back. But this was different. On the night that Rafa Benítez returned to Mestalla for the first time since 2004, there was something redolent about this performance. Benítez won Valencia's first league in 31 years; there was a feeling that emulating that might not be so impossible after all. Before the game, Emery insisted: "If Barcelona play to their best the only choice you have is how you die." Instead, it was Barcelona feeling thankful to have survived. The Valencia newspaper Super Deporte led on: "That's the way we like it." Inside, the headline ran: "A magnificent Valencia make Barcelona suffer."
They certainly did: even the Catalan media were cheering the draw. Unlike Madrid's 0-0 in Santander, 2-2 at Mestalla was, said the cover of El Mundo Deportivo, "a puntazo" – a hell of a point. In fact, according to Sport, it was "más que un punto". Not strictly true of course – Barcelona's lead over Madrid is just one point when it could have been a three-point lead that would look hugely significant even as early as this – but there was a certain logic to the argument.
Before every game, Emery gathers his players in a small, white room equipped with rows of chairs like a tiny cinema. There, with the help of a whiteboard, a marker and an old sock to wipe away his workings, he talks them through what they have to do – reinforcing the work done in training during the week, leaping to the board to scribble arrows and circles. Before they leave, he hands each one of them their "homework": a USB pen-drive containing individual instructions, details of what he expects from them and what they can expect from the opposition – the right-back is told about their left-winger, the centre-forward about their centre-back. The man who took Almería to a miraculous eighth place in 2008, an obsessive tactician who can be found at grounds all over the country furiously scribbling on scraps of paper, Emery pores over every detail trying to get his tactics right.
On Wednesday night, he did. Guardiola on the other hand didn't. Before the match, Guardiola had insisted that playing with three at the back was "risky"; he had so much respect for Valencia, he said, that never mind four, last year he played with five. But when it came to it, he opted for a back three in a 3-3-1-3 formation with Javier Mascherano as a kind of narrow right-back and Dani Alves as a right-winger miles away up at the other end of the pitch. "What a game Mascherano had," Guardiola said afterwards, forgetting to include the word "terrible". Exposed, out of position and alone, the Argentinian could not cope. Emery pushed Jérémy Mathieu up on the left-hand side – and it was from there that both of Valencia's goals came as they took a 1-0 lead through an Abidal own goal and a 2-1 lead through Pablo Hernández (even if the ref's report gave it to Miguel, who was miles away). It was from there too that the chance was created for Soldado's extraordinary miss. At half-time Guardiola moved Alves back to full-back; he had taken his time.
Emery pushed his side high, played with speed and intensity and sought to rob the ball, giving Barcelona "as little possession as possible". Midway through the second half the statistics read: Barcelona 53%, Valencia 47% – startlingly low for a Barcelona team which averages closer to 65%. Xavi rarely settled, Sergio Busquets was hurried and Seydou Keïta was irrelevant. Banega in particular was hugely impressive. "They took the ball off us and we really suffer when that happens," Puyol said afterwards, "it was a great game with two great teams." "Having less possession than normal meant that we had to work harder and that led to far greater defensive tiredness," Guardiola admitted. "Valencia were wonderful; Mathieu and Alba always caused us problems."
For Valencia there was just one issue: Barcelona have Cesc Fábregas and, above all, they have Leo Messi. He provided a superb assist for Pedro to get the first equaliser, got bundled over for a penalty that was ignored, and then provided another assist for Cesc to score his fifth in five games. With Barcelona finally finding their rhythm and with Alba sent off in the 92nd minute, Valencia were forced to hang on for the 2-2 draw. "I am," Emery said, saying it all, "half-satisfied." He still has not defeated Barcelona but few have so come close so often; and few have impressed like Valencia did, clinching a draw that La Liga need almost as much as they did in the aftermath of Mata's departure. As Guardiola put it: "This result may reconcile people with the league."
Back in the spring of last year, Emery was explaining his approach. Leaping to his feet, a marker in his hand, he drew a cross on the whiteboard. "If you have Messi here, he dribbles past five and scores," he said, frantically adding more crosses and circles and arrows. "Great. But if you don't have Messi, or some other amazing player, you have to look at the move again. Messi starts here, and the ball ends up in the net. So, let's start there and try to end at the goal too. What's the aim? What's the best path? A one-two, a movement from this side, an overlap? There's no Messi so, this guy has to play inside, he returns it, he overlaps, he crosses … we might not have the one player who can complete that journey but with three we can do it."
The enthusiasm defines Emery and the phrase defines Valencia. With each passing season, they have sold their best player, their quickest route to goal – Silva, Villa, Mata – but with each passing season they have brought in three more. With each passing season, Emery has been forced to find another route and every year that journey becomes harder, but he keeps on making it. For all the optimism, winning the league is almost certainly beyond Valencia but they have journeyed to the top of the table. And La Liga is a better place for it.
Dunno if they are true. 
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