The opening fixtures have already shown the keys to La Liga’s title race. Protagonists Barcelona and Real Madrid got off to winning starts in their first competitive games of the 2026/27 season, a full week after La Liga’s season opener. They put their first points on the board in very different ways, and will likely continue to do so throughout the campaign.

Barcelona blew Elche away on Sunday by putting up five goals in Alicante. As the scoreline suggests, this was a clinical attacking performance from the Blaugrana, but it is always unwise to get carried away after one game.

For one, it is worth noting that Elche’s defending has always been naive against Hansi Flick’s side. They let in at least three goals in each of their previous four encounters, and leaked well over 6 xG worth of chances when the two sides last faced off back in January.

Moreover, the first signs of injury issues appeared as early as the first half. Gavi had to go off amid serious concern as he was clutching his right knee – the same one which suffered an ACL tear in 2023 and required meniscus surgery last season, causing him to miss well over 100 matches altogether. Although initial indications have allayed fears in this case, it certainly isn’t a good omen for a side that desperately needs to stay as fit as possible if they are to achieve their goals.

While Hansi Flick’s second-season curse didn’t derail their campaign last time around, Barcelona are even thinner in defence at the moment. Ronald Araújo’s departure for Liverpool has left them with just three out-and-out senior centre-backs. The most dependable and important among them is an overworked child who played about 4,700 minutes last season before going the distance in the World Cup. The candidates to partner him against Elche included a man who hadn’t completed a full 90 at the club level since September 2025, and Eric García. No surprise, then, that the defending champions went with converted full-back Gerard Martín.

Even if Barcelona bring one more centre-back in before the end of the window, their defensive depth would remain inadequate for a team aiming to compete for four trophies. Given the physical demands of defending in Flick’s high line, they will need to keep Pau Cubarsí wrapped in cotton wool whenever he is not playing, and likely use some creative solutions for squad rotation such as dropping Rodri in against weaker opposition.

At the other end of the pitch, the defending champions are yet to bring in a direct replacement for their two departed strikers. With Marcus Rashford also gone at the end of his loan, they have lost 41 goals from the last league campaign. New signings such as Karim Adeyemi…

And Anthony Gordon…

Will go some way towards filling these absences, but an out-and-out box-occupying striker would be a far more dependable source of goals.

The strikers Barcelona are currently being linked with are some of the most high-end options out there, but they need not pay top dollar for this profile. Had they been more proactive, they could have gotten someone like Vedat Muriqi to do the job. A loan à la Luuk de Jong in 2021/22 may now have to become an option this late in the window, but either way, all they need is someone who can reliably take and finish shots.
Chance creation won’t be an issue given the quality Barça have in midfield and on the wings, so they can be relatively confident of doing enough in attack regardless of how the rest of the window goes. All told, then, their title chances will hinge on how well their defence holds up.

After going entirely trophyless for the second season in a row, Real Madrid made some waves in the summer in a bid to end what is an unacceptably long barren run by their standards. In the year of our lord 2026, they turned to José Mourinho as their new head coach, before backing him with €225 million worth of transfer spending.

Most of Los Blancos’ investment went towards the wings, with Yan Diomande’s fee alone accounting for over half the amount. Denzel Dumfries and Marc Cucurella offer new full-back options on either flank, while Ibrahima Konaté and Bernardo Silva were brought in on free transfers. Amid all of these big names, their best piece of business might be signing Carlos Espí for €20m.

Indeed, the young striker has already started to prove his worth by coming off the bench and scoring the late game winner against Espanyol. With the way Real Madrid’s attack is currently set up, he might have to do a fair bit more of that in the remainder of the season.

Despite all of the new signings, the biggest news item from the record Champions League winners’ transfer window was the Vinícius Júnior saga. There definitely is an argument to be made that letting him go might have helped better balance the team, but he ended up signing a contract extension. As a result, he will keep the left wing spot on lock and leave Kylian Mbappé to start as a striker. Even though he holds the Pichichi Trophy, the Frenchman’s lack of dynamism inside the box to consistently get on the end of deliveries remains an issue; he managed a grand total of two headed shots in the league last season.

There are relatively smaller areas of concern elsewhere on the pitch. For instance, signing someone to serve as a fixed deep-lying midfielder might have unlocked more out of Aurélien Tchouaméni, while both full-time right-backs consider defending to be an optional part of their game (which, in combination with Éder Militão’s injury issues, leaves the right side of the defence generally weaker). However, the more pressing concern certainly is in the team’s general out-of-possession setup.

Mbappé’s infamous lack of defensive output has been under scrutiny for a good few years, but that has yet to significantly change his behaviour on the pitch. Even if Mourinho unlocks something in him, the Portuguese coach can’t be trusted to devise overly cohesive pressing schemes at this stage of his career, so Real Madrid’s defensive tactics will have to be centred around a solid mid block. No matter how well they do, then, their potential to suffocate opponents and exert total dominance on games will be limited.

Nevertheless, it has to be said that Los Blancos have the highest ceiling in La Liga given the sheer quality they possess across all departments of their squad (we haven’t even mentioned Jude Bellingham, for instance). The issue is that they are yet to show a consistent baseline performance level that can rival what Barcelona have produced over the last two seasons. How well they fare in that respect might well be the decisive factor in this season’s title race.

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