La Liga is back underway and with Barcelona's issues which were added to by the sale of Neymar, Real Madrid are the clear favourites to retain the league title.
Both sides started the season with regulation wins as expected but it's Real who are looking imperious with Zinedine Zidane's methods as coach and manager starting to become truly appreciated beyond the aura of his name alone as Off The Ball's European football correspondent Graham Hunter explained.
"He has transmitted to them that it's his club, not the president's and that is a revolutionary change and it's made everybody believe," said Graham.
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That is especially significant at a club in which president Florentino Perez has loomed large behind some high profile managers like Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti.
And when it comes to the hierarchy within the squad and training, there appears to be a greater sense of meritocracy under Zidane as Hunter explains.
"Right from day one there are shooting drills where he said to all of them, 'I actively encourage you to shoot from distance', not like hedonistic individualism but that 'it's going to be a tactic of ours'," said Graham of a tactic that has paid off, contrasting that with the Pep Guardiola era Barcelona where possession as high up the field as possible was the main tactic - with both tactics suiting the respective teams.
"When players get told things that they themselves know are right, it's square pegs in square holes and when players get told things by coaches daily or in a strategic briefings before a match and they come true, it's square pegs in square holes. It fits and they go, 'this guy's good'".
Graham added that there don't seem to be any players in this current Real squad who aren't playing somewhere close to the peak of their entire careers and described what we're seeing as "golden era football".
He also discussed whether this La Liga season will be a procession for Real Madrid and talked about the impact and effect of Barcelona's move for Ousmane Dembele and whether they could also manage to add Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho to that summer outlay.
