Villarreal lead the division by virtue of their better goal difference, followed by the two Spanish behemoths and Getafe as well as Athletic Club.
All five are on six points after two games, but if previous seasons are anything to go by, it'll be Los Blancos and the Blaugranes battling it out at the business end of the campaign.
Real certainly have a point to prove this season after they were beaten to the title by Barcelona, defeated in both games and also the Copa del Rey final, as the Catalans came within a whisker of making it another treble-winning season.
Unlucky Mbappe
Kylian Mbappe can consider himself unlucky not to have won any silverware from his debut campaign, other than the Pichichi Trophy, awarded to the top league goalscorer in Spain, and the European Golden Shoe, awarded to the top league goalscorer in Europe.
42 goals in all competitions was a brilliant return from the Frenchman, and Los Blancos could've been a lot worse off then they were had he not been on target so often.
That's because the much-lauded Vinicius Junior had another underwhelming campaign for the Santiago Bernabeu outfit.
Just 11 goals in 30 games in LaLiga last season isn't anywhere close to being good enough for a player who won't sign any new deal at the club unless he's given financial parity with Mbappe.
Vinicius wants over £500,000 per week
That would mean the club would need to raise his current €400,577 (£345,369) weekly salary to a whopping €600,962 (£518,137), and that's something they are clearly not prepared to do at this stage.
At 25 years of age, the Brazilian still has two years left on his current deal, but his blanket refusal to put pen to paper has left the club in an awkward position.
They certainly wouldn't want the player to run down his contract and leave for free in summer 2027, but the question really is whether Vini Jr. still represents good value.
The powers that be at the club are understood to be unhappy with how often he courts controversy too, with the latest episode coming in Real's most recent fixture at Real Oviedo, where he appeared to hold up two fingers to the home fans after scoring his side's third goal, suggesting the home side would be going straight back down to the Spanish second tier.
Vini Jr's general play has left a lot to be desired
If he were banging in the goals with the regularity of his attacking colleague, the other side of his game might get overlooked, but as it is, his behaviour appears to have grated on many board members for some while now.
Whilst it's true that only Karim Benzema has outscored the Brazilian since the 2017/18 season (173 goals to Vinicius' 101), and the latter's 72 assists is better than any other player in the squad during that time, since Mbappe's arrival it's abundantly clear that the pair can't play together.
They consistently make the same runs for a loose ball, and often haven't worked out how to read each other's movements during Real's attacks.
Moreover, Vini's general play isn't conducive to success at one of the world's most storied football institutions.
For example, his pass completion is one of the lowest in the squad, and his 79% from LaLiga last season shows a downward trend since his arrival at the club. If we factor in the Champions League in 2024/25, it's even worse, with his 69.2% completion frankly awful at that level.
His wastefulness in front of goal had seen him convert just 13.6% of his chances in the previous campaign, whilst a 3.9% conversion in the Copa del Rey and 7.7% in the Club World Cup are embarrassingly poor for a player that believes he's worth over half a million pounds per week.
Defensively poor and consistently carded
Coupled with an xG of 10.61 last season, which shows another downward trend from 13.11 in 2023/24, the powers that be at the club would feel well within their rights not to reward a player whose numbers are not improving and are, in fact, going in totally the opposite direction.
Looking at things from a defensive standpoint, he made just three interceptions in the league in 24/25, and consistently loses more one-on-one duels than he wins. In fact, only once, during the 23/24 Spanish Super Cup, has he won more than he's lost (13 successful duels compared to 12 unsuccessful).
Aerially it's a non-starter with just 27 headed duels won in the last eight seasons, and 72 lost.
Though Vinicius has only been sent off once in his Real career, he has picked up 62 yellow cards in 320 games since 2017/18, roughly one in every five matches played.
That's by far the most of any Real attacker (Rodrygo has just 11 by way of comparison), and only Dani Carvajal's 70 yellows is more than the Brazilian was shown in the same time frame.
No player is bigger than the club
No player is bigger than the club, and Vinicius' recent words that he wants to "make history" with Real Madrid sound more than a little hollow when it appears he's holding the club to ransom.
Despite a lack of self-awareness regarding his poor numbers, the club do still have a contract for him on the table.
The player, therefore, needs to think long and hard about what he wants to do with a career that could still write many new chapters yet.
