The second weekend of the La Liga season and more talking points to ponder with 2021/22 in its infancy.
As it stands there is still the chance of more La Liga 2021 highlights to come with two games to be played this evening (August 23).
Regardless of what happens tonight, though, we’ve had a few early indicators from the weekend programme of matches in the Spanish top flight.
Passion play and fans’ favourites
This contest confirmed three factors to me:
1) that Athletic Bilbao really have a much better chance to shake off their nearly-men tag when they’re playing at home with the support of their passionate fans at San Mames.
This showed again on Saturday night as they tore into their illustrious visitors Barcelona from the kick-off and could easily have led by more than Inigo Martinez’s headed opener after Bilbao had dominated.
Perhaps they can be third time lucky in their quest for the Copa del Rey triumph this year.
2) that as Barca try and find their way in the post-Lionel Messi era, that a new fans’ favourite could just have emerged. Certainly, Memphis Depay plays with passion and he scored a blistering first goal for his new club which will endear to him to his new supporters. Real potential, could be the start of a new relationship?
3) after a topsy turvy season, this SBOTOP writer can still get some big predictions correct! I was beginning to think I’d lost my mojo but I’m happy again now!
It was far from an ideal night for Barca and coach Ronald Koeman, incidentally.
They lost Gerard Pique to a calf injury midway through the half, an injury that will rule him out next weekend.
Another player that will miss out is the centre back who started alongside him in the heart of Barcelona’s defence, Eric Garcia, after he received a red card for his foul on Nico Williams in the closing stages.
Family links and Fer Nino are spot-on
The last time I reported on Mallorca, they were a goal down before I could blink – inside 66 seconds in fact. They had been relegated within weeks.
This time an almighty happier affair.
Don’t get me wrong, the SBOTOP La Liga 2021 betting odds are still stacked against them as they endeavour for back-to-back seasons in the top flight for the first time since 2013.
Yet, even at this stage of the season, the importance of Fer Nino’s penalty in the colours his father once wore could prove crucial come the end of the current campaign.
For newly promoted Mallorca, the success his 79th-minute penalty earned them at Alaves has ensured they have four points from their first two games.
Fer Niño has come full circle. The new vermilion striker, on loan from Villarreal, could not have had a better debut with the colours that his father also wore a few years ago.
In securing Mallorca their first victory of 2021/22, he repeated the formula he did in January 2020 with the Yellow Submarine when he debuted in La Liga Santander on the same stage.
Atletico have their own Angel
It’s 37 years since a club other than the Real Madrid-Barcelona duopoly won back-to-back La Liga titles.
In many ways, that shows the magnitude of the task Atletico Madrid face this term.
Just like last season, few genuinely expect Los Rojiblancos to win the title, let alone retain it.
And with a lack of big summer signings, with the exception of Rodrigo de Paul from Udinese, there’s probably a lack of enthusiasm in some quarters for their chances.
Yet the character and resoluteness that they displayed last term counts for a lot and manager Diego Simeone can’t have asked for more than six points from their first two games.
Yes, they were expected to win both games but would have been savaged if they hadn’t.
All three goals in those victories against Celta Vigo and Elche have been scored by Argentine Angel Correa.
When Atletico lifted the trophy in 2013-14, their title year was immediately followed by a big exodus of key players from Simeone’s side, including David Villa, Diego Costa and Thibaut Courtois (the latter two to Chelsea).
The following season a much weaker Atletico finished 16 points behind eventual champions Barcelona.
The season after their previous title win, Atletico finished the 1996-97 season in fifth place, 21 points off winners Real Madrid.
Within three years they had been relegated, the title-winning team dispersed completely, including Simeone who headed to Lazio and Serie A.
They are not favourites or even second favourites to retain the title in 2021/22, but they already have a two-point advantage over their big two rivals.
The Atletico Angel called Correa has done his stuff.
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