Madrid already marks the step

Madrid strikes first. Ancelotti's team is the first leader of the League. The 1-4 victory against Alavés places the white team at the top of the table after the first match. Ancelotti's men achieved the biggest victory of the opening day in Mendizorroza. They won by three goals difference, something that Sevilla also did (3-0) against Rayo, but the greater number of goals scored leaves Madrid as the first leader.

The white team did not occupy the first place of the classification since the fifth day of last season, when he was the leader with 10 points after four games played (his match on the first day against Getafe he played postponed in February). On matchdays 14, 15 and 16 he was tied on points with Atlético.

It is the third time in the last five seasons that Madrid have started the championship at the top. Two seasons ago, with Zidane on the bench, he did it in a situation very similar to the current one. The whites beat Celta 1-3 in Balaídos and Sevilla was second, thanks to the 0-2 they got in the Espanyol field. Madrid was champion. The other first recent leadership dates from 2017-18, when Madrid, also coached by Zidane, beat Deportivo 0-3 in Riazor.

Although it may seem so from the closest precedents, seeing Madrid at the top of the table at the end of the first day has not been so common in this century. To find the previous occasion to the two already mentioned, you have to go back ten years, to 2011-12, the League that Mourinho conquered. That time the Madridistas beat Zaragoza 0-6 at La Romareda in a match that actually corresponded to the second day, since the first was postponed due to a strike called by AFE to demand a new collective agreement. And, in turn, Madrid's previous inaugural leadership dates from the 1998-98 season, 13 years earlier and still in the 20th century.

The first augural inmario 'triplet' in eight years

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético won their respective first league games, a match that had not occurred since the 2013-14 season, when they beat Betis, Levante and Sevilla, respectively. Last season the three main candidates for the title won their matches on the first day (against Getafe, Elche and Sevilla), but they played them postponed sprinkled on the calendar. In their league debut, on the second matchday Madrid drew against Real Sociedad and on the third Atlético beat Granada and Barça beat Villarreal.