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Barcelona 18 From 18: La Liga's Perfect Start and Mourinho's Madrid Three Behind
Barcelona have won all six of their opening La Liga fixtures. As of 17 September 2026 they lead on 18 points, three clear of Real Madrid and Real Betis, both on 15 (Wikipedia).
| # | Club | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 6 | 18 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 6 | 15 |
| 3 | Real Betis | 6 | 15 |
| 4 | Atlético Madrid | 6 | 13 |
| 5 | Sevilla | 6 | 13 |
| 6 | Alavés | 6 | 10 |
| 7 | Deportivo A Coruña | 6 | 9 |
| 8 | Espanyol | 6 | 7 |
Results review only — no odds, no prices, no markets.
A perfect six that is not a gap
Eighteen from eighteen is the strongest possible start, and it has bought Barcelona exactly three points of margin. That is the useful way to read it: in a division where the top five have all taken at least 13 points from six games, perfection has produced a lead that a single bad weekend erases.
The scoring is where the separation actually shows. Raphinha leads the division with nine goals in six matches, ahead of Kylian Mbappé on seven for Real Madrid. A forward averaging a goal and a half per game in September is the kind of run that regresses — but the goals are already banked in the table.
Mourinho’s Madrid: three points and a different question
José Mourinho replaced Álvaro Arbeloa at Real Madrid this summer. Fifteen points from six is a perfectly respectable return that would lead most divisions; here it is second place and a three-point deficit.
The interesting thing about the start is not the points total but the shape: Madrid are scoring through Mbappé at a rate that covers a lot of other questions. The season’s real test arrives when that rate dips and the structure underneath has to hold — historically the moment when a Mourinho side either becomes very hard to beat or becomes very difficult to watch, and occasionally both.
Real Betis, again
Betis on 15 points is the result nobody wrote into a preview, and they also won away at Lille on the opening Champions League matchday. Level with Real Madrid after six rounds, they are the one club in the table whose position is genuinely unexplained by budget.
The promoted three
Racing Santander are back after 14 years, Deportivo A Coruña after eight — and Depor sit seventh on nine points. Málaga CF came up through the play-offs.
Two of Spain’s most historically significant clubs returning in the same season is a story in itself; Deportivo starting in the top eight is the kind of thing that gets forgotten by December but matters enormously to the club’s survival maths in May.
The first sacking
Valencia dismissed Carlos Corberán in mid-September. Six rounds is early even by the standards of a division that changes managers freely, and it sets a tone for the autumn: the clubs below the European places have very little patience this season.
What decides the next month
Barcelona’s six wins have come without a meeting with Madrid, Atlético or Betis. The fixture list from late September through the October international break is where the perfect start meets the rest of the top five — and where three points of margin gets tested against the only opponents capable of removing it.
Sources
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