Wild figures from Flick's edition make Mourinho talk: did you return at the wrong time?

Barça scored 22 goals and conceded just three across this perfect run, bettering their start to the 2025-2026 campaign. Twelve months ago, Barcelona managed four wins and a draw from their first five matches, scoring 15 and conceding four.

That sequence read as follows: Mallorca 0-3, Levante 2-3, Rayo Vallecano 1-1, Valencia 6-0, then Newcastle 1-2 to open the Champions League. In La Liga, Barcelona took 10 points from a possible 12 during that spell.

This season has looked rather different: Elche 0-5, Athletic Bilbao 2-0, Rayo Vallecano 5-2, Valencia 0-5, then Feyenoord 5-1. Four league games and a European fixture again, but the numbers tell their own story. Twelve points from 12 in the league. Twenty-two goals scored against three conceded across the five matches.

Goal difference climbed from +11 to +19. The scoring average jumped from three goals a game to 4.4, while the Catalan side kept three clean sheets rather than two.

On the road, the gap looks just as striking. Barcelona scored seven and conceded three in three away league games last year, drawing one. This season they have played two away in La Liga, scoring 10 without conceding once.

Alongside that collective strength came a blistering attacking start led by Raphinha. The Brazilian scored 6 goals in his first four La Liga matches, then added two more against Feyenoord. No player has stood taller in the numbers this season.

Barcelona's attacking output has clearly grown this term. That comes despite the summer departures of Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, and the club's failure to sign Julian Alvarez. Fans had feared a gaping hole at centre-forward. Raphinha, more than anyone, has laid those doubts to rest.

Real Madrid, over the same stretch of Jose Mourinho's second spell, also played five official matches: a 2-1 win over Espanyol, 4-1 over Real Sociedad, 4-0 over Malaga, then a 0-1 defeat to Betis, before a 2-1 victory over Inter Milan. That leaves four wins and one defeat, with 12 goals scored and 4 conceded.

Nine points from the first four rounds of La Liga have Real Madrid sitting third. Barcelona top the table on 12.

Both sides face their first real test on 25 October, when the season's opening Clasico takes place at the Spotify Camp Nou.

Barcelona's flying start has certainly stirred fears in the Madrid camp, and none more so than for the veteran Mourinho. His return to the Bernabeu looks to have arrived at the wrong moment. He must now overcome the monster Hansi Flick has built, one delivering its most terrifying version yet this season.

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