It was a bumper weekend of La Liga with matches spanning from Friday evening to just before midnight (Spanish time) on Tuesday morning.
Now every team has played two games, the talking points have well and truly begun and they involve all manner of topics.
But what caught my eye? Well, for a start there was plenty of drama crammed into the final stages in Seville on Friday night.
Goalless with 10 minutes remaining, there was little indication of what was to come at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
First, Anuar Tuhami delivered a brilliant opener for newly promoted Real Valladolid to dream of the points. Then, six minutes later, Karim Rekik pounced on an error to prod Sevilla level.
There was still time for both teams to be reduced to 10 men, two minutes from time, as Marcos Acuna and Jawad El Yamiq were giving their marching orders.
Both teams were also down to 10 in the other Friday night contest, although both Espanyol and Real Vallecano had been numerically disadvantaged by the half hour mark.
Florian Lejeune and Sergi Gomez were the players dismissed and the visitors adapted far better with Isi Palazon powering them in front five minutes before the break.
When Pathe Ciss tapped home a second from close range just before the hour, the points were sealed, although Espanyol struck the post twice in the final 10 minutes.
Fast forward 24 hours and Real Madrid, justifiably title favourites with the SBOTOP La Liga 2022 betting odds, were playing their second away match in succession.
The champions headed for Galicia expecting a firm test and that is what they had for a time but class shone through in the end.
After confirming the departure of Brazilian midfielder Casemiro to Manchester United, the Spanish and European kings flexed their muscles with a display which highlighted their strength in depth.
Two penalties awarded for handball were given in the opening 22 minutes and converted by Karim Benzema and Iago Aspas respectively.
That’s how it stayed until four minutes before the break when Luka Modric put the visitors back in front with a long-range shot which made La Liga 2022 highlights.
Champions League final hero Vinicius Junior got in on the act and made it 3-1, bursting into the penalty area following an impressive individual run and rounding the keeper before rolling the ball into an empty net.
The Brazilian was again involved when he played in Federico Valverde to side-foot home the fourth.
It would have been five had Agustin Marchesin not saved Eden Hazard’s 87th-minute penalty, awarded after the Belgian was fouled, but it mattered not.
Things didn’t go as well for their city rivals, 2021 La Liga champions Atletico Madrid, as they were beaten at home by Villarreal on Sunday teatime.
The deadlock was broken 18 minutes from time when Yeremi Pino fired into the bottom left-hand corner.
Pino had to leave the fray three minutes later through injury but last season’s Champions League semi-finalists held out under home pressure – including a Matheus Cunha header which hit the crossbar – and after Nahuel Molina was dismissed for violent conduct in stoppage time, Gerard Moreno wrapped up the points for the Yellow Submarine following a quick breakaway.
After a frustrating start to the campaign, Barcelona were still unsure if they could play new signing Jules Kounde at Real Sociedad.
In the build-up, manager Xavi acknowledged the club needs to sell players to register the French defender, who arrived at the Nou Camp from Sevilla for a reported £42 million fee but has not been able to play as the club needs to comply with La Liga financial rules.
Barca had registered four other new players the night before their league opener last weekend after freeing up funding with several ‘economic levers’.
As it turned out, they still couldn’t include Kounde and may not be able to for a few weeks but, unhappy with their opening goalless draw at home to Vallecano, Xavi did bring in Alejandro Balde for Jordi Alba at left-back while Ferran Torres and the much talked about Frenkie De Jong replaced youngster Ansu Fati and new signing Raphinha.
It was deadlocked for much of the first half with Lewandowski opening the scoring in the first minute from a Balde ball before Alexander Isak latched onto a pass from David Silva to equalise.
It took until the introduction of Fati, the Spanish teenager who has been struggling to recover after a series of knee surgeries in the last two years, to turn the match in Barca’s favour.
First, he combined with fellow sub Raphinha to set up Ousmane Dembele before Fati played his own role in Lewandowski’s second.
Lewandowski returned the favour 10 minutes later, enabling the 19-year-old to score the visitors’ fourth goal and wrap up the points.
After all that, there were still two La Liga matches on Monday night and both involved newly promoted clubs.
Last season’s Liga 2 champions Almeira, who gave Real such a battle on the opening weekend, deserve credit for holding out at Elche for an hour following the 32nd-minute dismissal of Alex Centelles in a 1-1 draw.
Girona did themselves proud too, seeing off Getafe at home 3-1 to secure their first win of the season in what is only the third season they have played in Spain’s top flight.
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