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Season begins Aug. 15 with the first match day spread across five days with two games each day. Among the big clubs, Barcelona open up away to Valencia on the 17th, Real Madrid make a trip to the Balearics to face Mallorca the following day, and Atleti wrap up the first match day with an away trip to Villarreal.
The two Clásicos this season correspond to the 11th (@ Madrid) and 35th (@ Barcelona) match days, usually don't get a Clásico that deep into the calendar but if there's still a title race up for grabs at that point - at what's expected to be the Nou Camp by then - it could be quite compelling.
I know the expectation probably feels like this is Real Madrid's league to lose, but I'd exercise some caution there, both for historical reasons and current. Real Madrid also entered the 2017-'18 season as runaway favorites to win the league post-Neymar at Barcelona...they finished a distant 3rd, 17 points behind an almost-invincible Barcelona team. They were out of the title race early and never mounted a threat. 2022-'23 was also supposed to be a Real Madrid season, also a season where they finished well behind Barcelona. Real Madrid hasn't repeated as La Liga champions since the 2006-'07/'07-'08 editions, it's been a long time. They've had some close calls but never been able to maintain league superiority multiples time in a row in that time frame.
Further, it may not be getting a whole lot of attention, what with them signing Mbappé and all, but their center back situation is extremely tenuous and could easily be their undoing this season. Alaba's still not back from his knee injury (his form was also very inconsistent pre-injury), Nacho left for soft retirement in Saudi, they sold Rafa Marín to Napoli, and their only "replacement" was someone returning from loan who played 3 games all season last year, at a club that got relegated. Unless they make some late transfer (it's been reported they won't), they're one injury to Rüdiger or Militão from being in a state of chaos.
So Madrid are the favorites, deservedly so, but I'd give Barcelona a fair chance at this, no question. It's played out to call Atleti a dark horse, all I'm gonna say is that if they essentially manage to swap out Morata for Álvarez as their starting #9, that's not too bad. Still likely way too many question marks otherwise though to be seen as a true title challenger.
The two Clásicos this season correspond to the 11th (@ Madrid) and 35th (@ Barcelona) match days, usually don't get a Clásico that deep into the calendar but if there's still a title race up for grabs at that point - at what's expected to be the Nou Camp by then - it could be quite compelling.
I know the expectation probably feels like this is Real Madrid's league to lose, but I'd exercise some caution there, both for historical reasons and current. Real Madrid also entered the 2017-'18 season as runaway favorites to win the league post-Neymar at Barcelona...they finished a distant 3rd, 17 points behind an almost-invincible Barcelona team. They were out of the title race early and never mounted a threat. 2022-'23 was also supposed to be a Real Madrid season, also a season where they finished well behind Barcelona. Real Madrid hasn't repeated as La Liga champions since the 2006-'07/'07-'08 editions, it's been a long time. They've had some close calls but never been able to maintain league superiority multiples time in a row in that time frame.
Further, it may not be getting a whole lot of attention, what with them signing Mbappé and all, but their center back situation is extremely tenuous and could easily be their undoing this season. Alaba's still not back from his knee injury (his form was also very inconsistent pre-injury), Nacho left for soft retirement in Saudi, they sold Rafa Marín to Napoli, and their only "replacement" was someone returning from loan who played 3 games all season last year, at a club that got relegated. Unless they make some late transfer (it's been reported they won't), they're one injury to Rüdiger or Militão from being in a state of chaos.
So Madrid are the favorites, deservedly so, but I'd give Barcelona a fair chance at this, no question. It's played out to call Atleti a dark horse, all I'm gonna say is that if they essentially manage to swap out Morata for Álvarez as their starting #9, that's not too bad. Still likely way too many question marks otherwise though to be seen as a true title challenger.
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