Phil Ball sums ity all up in this article.
A three horse-race?
I've just watched the Sevilla v Real Madrid game, and it was a bit of a cracker, as was expected. The game may prove to be significant in various ways this season, but anyone watching can have little doubt as to the wonders that La Liga will have to offer this season. A two-horse race? Forget it. More like fools and horses - the fools being those that write off Sevilla, the horses being the chaps who occupy the left side of Real Madrid. Poor Marcelo, and poor Drenthe, if he'd been there.
At one point in the second half, after Jesus Navas had just made his 5,000th incursion into the left side of Madrid territory at the speed of light, Iker Casillas had words with Guti, who in terms of attacking play had had a decent game. Without being able to lip-read Casillas, it was impossible to be sure about what he was saying, but it was probably something to do with the fact that Marcelo was receiving no support on the left-hand side, and that Navas was having a splendid time of it.
If you'd taken half-a-dozen international managers to the game and asked them at the end who they thought was Spain's right winger, then presumably they would have all pointed to Navas. The fact that the 23 year-old still has no senior cap is either a testament to the quality of the national side or to the cataracts on the eyes of its managers in recent years. Would Navas walk into most national sides in the world? Yes. In the past, due to some nervous condition from which he suffers, he has disappeared in action for weeks on end, but at his best - as he was tonight - he is simply devastating.
Add to that the left side of Seville's midfield, with either Perotti or Capel running riot, and it's clear to see that if you want to avoid defeat at the hands of Sevilla your full-backs need to be talking to your midfielders. It was bad enough when Dani Alves was around, but Sevilla still play the same way they always have, countering at breakneck speed and almost always using width to open up the line of the opposition. Glasgow Rangers in midweek managed to stem the tide whilst they were still full of running themselves, but when they ran out of steam in the second half, Sevilla simply pulverised them. It must have come as something of a culture shock, after winning week in and week out.
Navas can score as well, as he demonstrated by stealing in and pummelling a header into the net for Sevilla's opener, from a poisonous cross from the left. Madrid played quite well nevertheless, but missed Ronaldo's ability to scare defenders and to over-occupy them, to the advantage of others. Pepe, excellent on the ground but as vulnerable in the air as his colleagues, equalised with a header from a Guti free-kick, but Sevilla just carried on regardless. Without the speed of Lass in the defensive third of the pitch, an empty motorway opened up on the left-hand side which Navas joyously exploited. Other sides will have taken note, but they'll have to have a decent right-sided player to make it count. Normally Marcelo keeps the opposition occupied by attacking himself, but was too unnerved by the sheer speed of Sevilla's counters, and was constantly caught in no-man's land.
The talk next week - and there will be plenty of it because the league programme takes a rest until October 18th for the international games - will be about Madrid's first loss coinciding with Ronaldo's absence, due to an injured ankle sustained in midweek against Marseille. It would be a mistaken analysis, largely because the game was all about Sevilla, and their title credentials. The idea that they are weaker away from home has some substance in general terms, but there is little evidence to suggest so far that this is true in terms of this season. They lost their opening match at Valencia, true, but since then they have won each time on their travels. And to think that certain sections of the press were calling for Manuel Jimenez's head after that opening game.
Madrid will recover, and may even learn something from the defeat. The problem, apart from Navas, was that the midfield had invention but lacked pace. On the back-foot, it was always going to be up to Pepe to clean things up, with ex-Sevilla darling Ramos gone a-roaming. Going forward they looked good, but couldn't quite make the final pass tell.
