Welcome to La Liga Hangover, a weekly column running throughout the season in which we take a look at the key stories and talking points from Spanish football's top flight's most recent weekend of action. With a focus on the biggest teams, such as Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a worthwhile nod toward the rest, we take a look at how the league is shaping up each week and what to look out for going forward.
Atleti Destruction
National league organisers must be getting worried: All that summer excitement of the Women's World Cup, the Copa America and so on would've meant the fans wouldn't be as eagerly anticipating the start of domestic league seasons.
Obviously, they all had a sit-down and came to an agreement: The first big game of the season needs to come early in each of Europe's top leagues. Manchester City versus Chelsea in Gameweek 2, Roma versus Juventus the same, Monaco versus Paris Saint-Germain in Week 4 in France. For La Liga, maybe Jornada 3 has the real enticing game, Atletico Madrid versus Barcelona, but Week 2's pairing of Atleti and Sevilla was a heavy-duty clash too.
Sevilla's profit-making transfer window rightly led to praise, but Atletico's spending to beef up in key areas deserved more. They showed it at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, beating Sevilla by a margin wider than the tramlines between each of manager Diego Simeone's gelled-back hair strands—wider than Unai Emery's, come to that.
Perhaps pertinently, they did so with all 11 starters having already been Atleti players at the end of last season. Atletico look the real deal and still have two more new and important arrivals to come: Matias Kranevitter in December and a new pitch.
CLOSED! Kranevitter is now an Atletico. He will join the club in late December. Welcome! http://t.co/3H9vzHprO7 pic.twitter.com/z21DPz9Nkh
— Atleti English (@atletienglish) August 28, 2015
Jornada 2 Results
Villarreal 3-1 Espanyol
Real Sociedad 0-0 Sporting Gijon
Barcelona 1-0 Malaga
Celta Vigo 3-0 Rayo Vallecano
Real Madrid 5-0 Real Betis
Eibar 2-0 Athletic Bilbao
Sevilla 0-3 Atletico Madrid
Valencia 1-1 Deportivo La Coruna
Las Palmas 0-0 Levante
Getafe 1-2 Granada
Rafa, Rafael
Hold on a minute—what's this? Real Madrid scoring the most goals in La Liga over the weekend? In a bizarre turn of events, it seems the myriad headlines written screaming "fewest goals in nine games" were a tad premature.
Rafael Benitez turned up for his first league game as Real manager at the Santiago Bernabeu with all his key men fit to start and playing in the same roles as they had been throughout summer. And they took less than 100 seconds to score against Betis.
The movement between Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez was exceptional and should be something we come to expect from watching Real this term; it's a fluid, unpredictable rotation within defined roles and will allow the team, over time, to break down stubborn opponents.
The manager, per Marca, was unsurprisingly pleased at the improvement—yet in typical Benitez style, he focused also on parts of the game to improve.
I'm delighted with the team's performance. There are areas to improve on, but I said that the goals would come with time, and this has proved to be the case. I take many positives away with me but there are also a few things to tweak.
As a side we get into dangerous areas, finish our chances and defend relatively well. I like the fact that we scored five goals, even more so than us not conceding. We are still a bit lacking in our performance levels, we need to give the players a rest now; now is the time when they need it most [during the international break].
At the other end of the pitch, interestingly, Keylor Navas signed his name in big block capital letters to the Don't Sign David De Gea petition, making a penalty save and notching a second successive clean sheet after some brave and alert goalkeeping to deny Ruben Castro. The Bernabeu crowd chanted his name more than once, and the 2014 Liga 'keeper of the year has done more than enough to justify his position as Real Madrid No. 1.
But when have such simple matters as form and suitability ever dictated what Real do in the transfer market?
Rafa also had words for the Costa Rican stopper, per Marca: "I love to see Keylor playing so well, but I'd prefer him to be less involved in the game."
Real Madrid's next game is against Espanyol on September 12, and there's a good chance Benitez's words will be oddly prophetic: Keylor could yet be much less involved in that game.
Keylor's penalty save from the stands. The entire stadium was boosting him by chanting his name BEFORE the strike. pic.twitter.com/soklA1SenF
— M.A.J (@UltraSuristic) August 30, 2015
Goal of the Weekend
What a goal from James #realmadrid #halamadrid #jamesrodriguez (Vine by @DanielLevine0T0) https://t.co/4hNSHxmdH1
— TheRealMando (@Mandopilot17) August 29, 2015
James Rodriguez held his own individual Goal of the Weekend competition and just about comes out on top ahead of, well, himself. Essentially, this weekend's best goals all came from the two Madrid clubs. Of the spectacular strikes, player and manager had different views, per Marca. You can probably tell which is which.
"If they score stunning goals, all the better for you. I'm just satisfied with them scoring, and I don't care how they do it."
"It is one of my best. Among my top three. I had never scored like that before."
Runner-up Edition
Vine goal James, salto! BOOM https://t.co/gYAmaqGc0q”
— CHICA MADRIDISTAS (@Chicas_TBK) August 30, 2015
Se estrena Jackson Martinez en la liga. Sevilla 0-3 Atleti (Vine by @ActualFutbol ) https://t.co/mCMzoHa2zb
— 3 Picas + Gol (@3pmgcomunio) August 30, 2015
Points of Authority
The MSN strike force was back together for Barcelona, but Thomas Vermaelen, excellent defensively in Week 1 and impressive again versus Malaga, was the man who had to come up with the goal to keep Barcelona's 100 per cent record going. Luis Enrique's men are still looking a little laboured in their build-up play and certainly not getting much interplay going between the front three, but there's nothing wrong with winning 1-0.
Gerard Pique will still be suspended after the international break, but even when he returns, Vermaelen is doing enough to give the manager a considerable headache.
Granada look much more offensively potent in the early days of this season than they were last term—which is just as well because the defence is still all over the place. Jeison Murillo is gone, of course, and they need to find a balance between protecting the back line and utilising their extremely fast attack.
Rene Krhin played just in front of the defence against Getafe and did a great job breaking up play and initiating attacks from deep. Behind him, there's work to do. At the other end, it's all about pace and power with Youssef El-Arabi, Isaac Success and (later in the game) Thievy Bifouma in attack. They will create plenty of chances between them, though all finish somewhat erratically.
The unstoppable force of nature that is Roberto Soldado (on Spanish soil, at least) continues in overdrive; one goal and two assists on Friday night mean that in 157 minutes of league action this term he has already bettered his numbers in both columns compared to the whole of last season. Villarreal's attack, with Cedric Bakambu a late addition, now looks strong once again after the four-man departure over summer of Luciano Vietto, Gio dos Santos, Ike Uche and Gerard Moreno.
Athletic Bilbao have problems to solve. They started last year in tremendously poor form before recovering to seal a top-half finish, and things are going the same way—there is little quality in the transition between midfield and attack and certain players—Sabin Merino and Eraso to name two—are not looking capable of standing in for the likes of Iker Muniain and Inaki Williams at present. A two-goal defeat to Eibar was a fair reflection of the game.
As for Eibar themselves, they have gone from 18th and relegation to top of La Liga. Elche's demotion gave the Basque side a lifeline, and their signings this summer appear better thought out. Two wins from two will only serve to remind the club of last year: Thier excellent first half of the season was followed by an awful plummet into the drop zone. For now, though, they can bask in the glory of being one of the four sides with a 100 per cent record.
Tactical Notes
David Moyes switched his Real Sociedad side back to 4-2-3-1, and it didn't work at all against Sporting Gijon, who themselves have now drawn 0-0 in both games this season. Moyes put Carlos Vela wide right, who was lazy and uninvolved, and there was little support for Jonathas in attack. The subs failed to alter this, and despite La Real having a talented squad available, it's not clicking between the middle and final third yet. The big positive remains the defence, with Asier Illarramendi's second debut also impressive after rejoining from Real Madrid.
Sevilla are a set-in-stone 4-2-3-1 side under Unai Emery, but the signing of Fernando Llorente means they are going to lack pace in the centre of attack compared to last year. To maximise his abilities, they must dominate the ball and get players into the penalty box around him regularly.
The Atletico Madrid defeat is a one-off, such is the excellence of their defence, but it has to be questioned if Vitolo and Jose Antonio Reyes are really the answer either side of him. Yevhen Konoplyanka is much more suited, both his delivery and in attacking the box. Vicente Iborra's breaks from central midfield, however, will be vital.
Las Palmas versus Levante, late on Sunday night, saw both teams go with a back-three system. It inevitably meant space in midfield and chances to fashion clear attacks were at a premium and 0-0 was something of a predictable outcome—though the home side definitely had the better of the game and will take confidence from their overall performance. It does, however, mean that between the three newly promoted sides and their six combined matches played, they have only registered a single goal between them. That's something to work on for Las Palmas, Betis and Sporting.
Good Week, Bad Week
The Good
Villarreal's comeback win showed an attacking depth to the squad again, which is testament to some hard work done by the club after so many departures. They now also have Denis Suarez available after signing him from Barcelona—who retain an option to buy back next summer.
Inigo Martinez and Diego Reyes of Real Sociedad once more put in a defensive masterclass, this time keeping Sporting Gijon at bay to record a second clean sheet of the season.
Karim Benzema was central to much of Real Madrid's good attacking play against Betis. The goals from Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, as well as the non-goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, mean others will once again get the headlines—but Benzema's touch and movement was absolutely on point, and he facilitated the chance creation around him.
Nolito has started the season in fine form and netted twice for Celta in a comfortable win over Rayo, as well as providing the assist for the third goal.
The Bad
Valencia haven't gotten into gear in La Liga yet, clocking up a second draw of the season, this time at home to relegation strugglers from last season Deportivo. A red card for Antonio Barragan was another negative, but at least they made the group stage of the Champions League and have signed Aymen Abdennour to boost their defence.
Tono was sent off for Rayo less than 10 minutes into their game at Celta, racing out of his goal to take down Daniel Wass, who was through to score. Against a team who use the ball as well as Celta, playing the entire match with 10 men made it impossible for Rayo to hold out—the 3-0 scoreline was pretty much justified.
Vicente Guaita had a horror show for Getafe as they lost 2-1 at home to Granada. The winning goal was a hard-struck, straight-at-the-'keeper, effort from Isaac Success, but Guaita took his eye off the ball and didn't position his body correctly, and it slipped through his hands and into the net.
Antoine Griezmann and Asier Illarramendi both put in very good performances for Atletico and Real Sociedad respectively, but both should have been shown second yellow cards just minutes after their first. Griezmann dived and Illarra made a late tackle—the referees in both cases were lenient and the players got lucky.
Follow @karlmatchett