Madrid back on track for title push

Real Madrid have endured a tough season in La Liga so far but following their 5-0 thrashing over Valencia at the weekend, it appears that their fortunes are starting to favour them once again.

Sunday’s breath-taking performance in Mestalla resulted in a victory that has seemingly put the issues of the past six months behind them.

It has been as season overshadowed by bust-ups, quarrels between manager and players and unmotivated performances above all. It may only be one victory but it is the kind of result that makes your title contenders sit up and ponder whether the Madrid of last season are back.

There were reports that Mourinho didn’t attend the majority of Saturday’s training session, however, after performing the way they did the following day, maybe it wasn’t a bad move from the former Chelsea boss.

It would be foolish to claim that the Madrid of last season are back and that they will go on to win the league again this year. Barcelona sit top of the pile, 15 points above Real and 8 points above second placed Atletico Madrid. However, despite the pretty sizeable gap, Madrid will take confidence from Messi and co’s results in recent weeks.

Over in the Catalan capital a few gaps have appeared in what seemed an unbeatable side. The Primera leaders lost 3-2 to Real Sociedad on Saturday evening and the rumours circulating around Victor Valdes’ future at the club continue to mount. It isn’t like Barcelona to chuck away leads like they did against Sociedad or Malaga the previous week. This will certainly give Madrid hope to their rejuvenated title push.

If Madrid want to overturn a 15 point gap between themselves and Barcelona, they need to build on their win at the weekend and hope the league leaders continue to drop points in uncharacteristic fashion. They need to quickly forget about the issues that they have struggled with this season and focus solely on the task in hand, that is pushing for the La Liga title once more. It seems a near impossible challenge but who am I to question what the “Special One” is capable of?

Andrew Floyd

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