Pepe has cleaned up his act in a big way. Of the 40 first-choice centre-backs in La Liga, he is the only one who has not yet been cautioned and, furthermore, he's only committed five fouls.

Not only has the 31-year-old hardly given away any fouls, but not a single one of them merited a yellow card. For a player who is followed everywhere he goes by a shady past, the figures are astounding, and they show that he's more focused and in better form than he ever has been in the past.

Pepe has committed 20 fewer fouls than his partner at the heart of the Real Madrid defence, Sergio Ramos, who has also been booked five times. As was plain to see in Almería, the Portuguese is in fine physical fettle, which allows him to be ruthlessly efficient in how he goes about his business, so he doesn't need to give fouls away. While many may find it difficult to believe, Pepe is topping the table as the cleanest centre-back in the league.

To understand how well Pepe is doing, with his five fouls and zero yellow cards, it is interesting to compare him to other centre-backs at leading Spanish clubs: Javier Mascherano has committed eight fouls and has seen yellow and red once apiece; Gerard Piqué has conceded seven fouls and has four yellow cards; Diego Godín has given away eight fouls and picked up three yellows; while Miranda has fouled seven times and seen four yellows.