Real Madrid Not worried about the seven-point gap

Criticising the performance of referees could do Real Madrid more harm than good, according to captain Sergio Ramos.

While the centre-back was slightly unhappy with the officiating during Los Blancos' 1-0 defeat to Real Betis, he was hesitant to grumble too much about the performances of the men in the middle.

"The more we talk about the referees the worse it gets," he said after the match.

"We need to respect the officials and hope they try to perform the best way possible.

"I am not surprised that they don't award penalties for us, but that they do for Barcelona."

Despite his concerns with the refereeing, Ramos did admit that Real Madrid need to perform better too and that they should get themselves into positions where a refereeing error does not prove costly.

"However, if we'd scored three goals then we wouldn't be upset about it," he added.

"We have had a frustrating start [to the season], one which is worrying.

"We've played against opponents who normally leave the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu with another kind of result, but now we need to move on, self-evaluate and think about the upcoming fixtures.

"We are the same players who were winning titles a month and a half ago.

"We need to be united and think about ourselves, as we have a great squad and there can be no excuses."

Analysing the title race, in which Barcelona are already seven points ahead, Ramos was certainly not willing to give up.

"Being seven points behind Barcelona is not too large a gap," he insisted.

"On other occasions we have come back from even larger gaps."

Keen to avoid dropping any further points, Real Madrid now turn their attention to the weekend's trip to take on Alaves.