Put the league games in these rows on a map and this stops looking like a fixture list and starts looking like a train route. Catalonia in August. Seville in early September. Elche on the fifteenth. And then, on the twentieth, a derby that was technically an away game and practically a commute across the city to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
Work through it in order, because the order is the story. On the twenty-second of August, away to Espanyol, two-one: a win tucked into the corner of the country furthest from home. Four days later, back in the capital, four-one at home to Real Sociedad. Then four-nil at home to Málaga on the thirtieth, and the month ended four-one, four-nil at home. September opened with the first bump — one-nil away at Real Betis on the fourth, in Seville, a long way to go for no goals. Then four-one at home over Rayo Vallecano on the twelfth, and the road again: three-two away at Elche on the fifteenth, at the Estadio Martínez Valero, a match played on the south-east coast, a three-two that never sounds comfortable but travels home well. And then the derby: one-two, away, at the Metropolitano, on the twentieth of September.
Look at the four away days again and count the corners of the country in them. Espanyol, up in Catalonia. Real Betis, all the way down in Andalusia. Elche, on the coast south of Valencia. And Atlético de Madrid, across town. Three of them are proper expeditions — most of the country crossed before September is out — and the fourth you could reach by metro. That is a strange kind of month: the trip south and the shortest one both ending in defeat. One-nil at Betis is the quiet kind of bad afternoon, the sort that goes home with nobody talking. One-two in the derby is the loud kind.
This opponent recurs in these rows more than almost any other, and the derbies are worth reading. Five of them sit here. The twenty-ninth of September 2024, away, one-one. The eighth of February 2025, at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, one-one again. The twenty-seventh of September 2025, away, and this is the bad one: two-five. Then the twenty-second of March 2026, at home, three-two — the one that went the right way. Then this September's defeat at the Metropolitano. Across those five rows: one win, two draws, two defeats — close enough to hurt in both directions. One more row from last season deserves a line of its own: the tenth of May, away at FC Barcelona, nil-two. The Clásico row in this ledger reads a good deal less well than the derby ones — some away days are just a long ride home.
There is a small, useful detail hiding in the Elche rows. The November trip last season — the one that finished two-two — lists the ground as the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero. The September trip this season — the one that finished three-two — lists it as the Estadio Martínez Valero. Same opponent, same town, two spellings in the ledger. Two visits, goals every time — a two-two and a three-two, a draw followed by a win.
By the numbers — La Liga: 4th · 7 played · 5-0-2 · 18-8 · 15 pts · form WLWWL. All data from ScoreCrowd's match records, retrieved 24 September 2026.
None of it needs much interpretation: the goals come in handfuls at home — four against Sociedad, four against Málaga, four against Rayo — and this season's defeats both came on the road. What is next is not in the data here yet. The competitions list says La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, so somewhere in this season there are European nights too — none of them in these rows. More miles are coming. They always are.