Barça have a perfect points total, Villarreal have the wrong one

Seven wins out of seven, 31 goals scored and 7 conceded: Flick's Barcelona are five points clear of Atlético and Betis and six clear of Real Madrid. Then Sevilla on 13 and Alavés on 11. At the bottom Elche on 5, Valencia on 4 and Málaga on 3, the only team still without a win. Levante have 5 points and a game in hand, postponed for rain against Athletic.

It is the league with the widest gaps in Europe, in both directions. And the most extreme case of all plays at the Bernabéu on Saturday at 21:00.

Raphinha, the debt that pays itself off

Twelve goals in seven matchdays, from 8.54 expected goals. He scores more than he creates, but he creates so much that even regressing to the mean he would still be the most profitable player in the league. That is exactly the difference between a debt and a superstar.

Before the break he scored two hat-tricks in a few days, at Racing in the 7-2 and at Sevilla in the 1-3. With Brazil he came off with a thigh problem, but the tests in Barcelona ruled out any injury: on Saturday at 18:30 against Getafe he should be there.

Mourinho's Madrid and Vinícius's account

Real have 15 points and two defeats that tell two different stories. At Sevilla against Betis they lost 1-0 while shooting 19 times for 3.38 expected goals, with three woodwork hits and an Mbappé penalty saved in the 93rd minute. In the derby they lost 2-1 and that was that.

Mbappé has 7 goals. Vinícius has one, from 3.57 expected goals and 22 shots: he is one of the biggest credits in Europe, and credits at that level all get collected at once, usually on the night when it suits everyone else least.

Villarreal, that is, the team that deserves the most

Eight points from 13.33 expected: more than five left on the road. Villarreal have played 109 balls into the opposition box, the highest figure in the five major leagues, ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona. On matchday two they created 3.54 expected goals at Atlético's ground, the highest away output in Europe, and came away with a draw.

And they hold the biggest credit in the five leagues: Ayoze Pérez, 1 goal from 4.26 expected goals. If there is a team that can hurt someone at the Bernabéu on Saturday without anyone expecting it, it is this one.

Betis and Atlético, two ways of sitting second

Betis have 16 points from 9.83 expected: the most overperforming team in La Liga, with only 9 goals scored. The win over Madrid is their manifesto, a goal from a corner and three woodwork hits from the others. On Sunday they host Osasuna.

Simeone's Atlético have the same points and a much more honest trajectory. They lost 3-0 in Bilbao without a single shot worth more than 13%, then won three games in a row, derby included, and a 4-0 against Osasuna from 5.14 expected goals against 0.72. On Saturday they go to Alavés. Watch Baena: 4 goals from 1.31 expected.

Debts and credits

The biggest debt in Europe belongs to Sergio Camello of Rayo: 7 goals from 2.83 expected, almost two and a half times what he produces. Behind him Yassir Zabiri of Racing, 6 from 3.27. On the other side, beyond Ayoze and Vinícius, there is Antony: 30 shots in the league and not a single goal. Thirty.

At the bottom

Valencia sacked Corberán on 13 September, with one point from five games, and brought in Javier Aguirre until the end of the season. Sunday at 21:00 in Santander is his first game in charge, against a newly promoted Racing side with the worst defence in the league, 21 goals conceded. Málaga, another newly promoted team, have scored 3 goals in seven matchdays. Deportivo, the third, are seventh: in Spain, apparently, going up a division does not mean anything precise.

Matchday eight, in order

It opens on Friday at 21:00 with Málaga-Espanyol. Saturday: Rayo-Athletic at 14:00, Alavés-Atlético at 16:15, Barcelona-Getafe at 18:30, Real Madrid-Villarreal at 21:00. Sunday: Elche-Celta at 14:00, Real Sociedad-Deportivo at 16:15, Betis-Osasuna at 18:30, Racing-Valencia at 21:00. Monday at 21:00 Levante-Sevilla closes it out.

Before anyone writes to us

Seven matchdays are more than the other leagues have played, but for a striker that is still twenty or thirty shots. We have expected points updated to the break for Betis and Villarreal, not for everyone: the rest we read game by game.

And a warning about Barcelona. Seven wins out of seven do not need any model to be true, but their top scorer is scoring three and a half goals more than he produces. When Raphinha regresses to the mean, Barça's goals will drop. The wins, probably, will not.

T.L.

How much each team truly deserves its league position is what the Meritometro tells you. For those who want models and not headlines, there is the Nerd Zone.