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Score: Real Madrid 2 - 0 Espanyol
Goals: Isco 30' (assist Ronaldo), 71' (assist Asensio)
Zinedine Zidane recorded his 50th win in La Liga as Real Madrid manager (76.9% wins) to break Real Madrid's duck and register their first home win of the season in La Liga and ensure that Barcelona didn't drift too far away atop the league table.
While Ronaldo didn't score, he did provide his 200th assist in the game's opener and orchestrated the counter-attack that led to the second, and final, goal of the match.
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Here, then are the five key things we learned from this match
#5. Isco Disco to the rescue
What a player this man is, eh?
On song, Isco is pure footballing joy and boy was he on song against Espanyol. He was everywhere as Real Madrid's fluid formation allowed him to float his way across the length and breadth of the pristine Bernabeu pitch and he was at the heart of everything good for Madrid, as ever.
As these stats, suggest, he put in a man of the match performance that was rewarded with a standing ovation from the ever demanding home crowd and underlined just why Real Madrid had inserted a €700 million release clause into his new contract.
#4. Quique Sanchez Flores shows the value of admitting mistakes and making early changes
After seeing his team get toyed around by Real Madrid for the first forty-five minutes, Quique Sanchez Flores would have been forgiven if he'd sent out the same team with the instructions of "park-the-bus" and "don't you dare let them score any more goals" but that's not how they do things in Spain and Flores is not a man to pull his punches.
Many managers shy from making changes before the hour mark in the fear they might be called out as having made a mistake in the initial team selection, but Flores was quick to see what his team was lacking and added the bite and attack-mindedness of Marc Navarro and Sergio Garcia during the half-time break.
In the second half, the two substitutes played a major role in pressing high and fast, and made Espanyol look like a whole different team - with a little more luck, they might even have walked out of the Bernabeu with a point! They may not have won or salvaged a draw, but Flores certainly proved the value of making changes when they are needed!
Keep playing like this, and Espanyol could soon return to the halcyon days when they were regularly knocking on the doors of European football regularly.
#3. Real Madrid still look shaky defensively
Real Madrid started the season impressively enough with convincing wins in both the UEFA Super Cup (against Manchester United) and the Spanish Super Copa (against Barcelona) and have started their Champions League campaign like they ended but they are somehow, rather strangely still finding their feet in La Liga. Still 7 points behind arch-rivals Barcelona, they have some catching up to do, but they can't quite do any of that if the one issue that has been with them since August simply doesn't go away - the shakiness of their defence.
Espanyol rarely threatened Real Madrid in the first half, but on the one occasion they did sloppiness on the part of Raphael Varane allowed Leo Baptistao a shot at goal that took the athleticism of Keylor Navas and the robustness of the Bernabeu goalframe to stop... in the second half, Real Madrid looked shaky several times (Ramos, Kroos, and Casemiro all guilty of loose passes in dangerous areas) and looked like they would concede any moment anytime before Isco scored his second to provide a measure of comfort to the team as a whole.
It was like a time-travel portal had opened up and Madridistas were suddenly transported to an era when Madrid could score and concede just about anytime, from anywhere, all game long. Zidane's Madrid have rarely looked so shaky before and it must be concerning for the Frenchman that they still haven't addressed this major issue come October.
#2. Politics threatens to overrun La Liga and push football to the background
The Spanish police's and interior ministry's brutal attempt at preventing an illegal referendum from taking place in Barcelona has had, and will have, widespread repercussions in the nation of Spain.
While Barcelona may have forgotten their motto of Mes Que Un Club to go ahead and play their match against Las Palmas behind closed doors, the vicious divide that the referendum and it's suppression have created doesn't look like closing down anytime soon
The Bernabeu was bedecked with the Spanish national flag and chants of "Viva Espana" have rarely carried such vigour and passion. While the debate will rage on about which side has the moral high ground and which side is correct, the fact remains that this will overshadow any and every development on the football pitch.
George Orwell once said that sport is essentially war without bullets, and when a Castilian side takes on a Catalan side like what happened today, the actual business of sport runs the risk of taking a backseat.
#1. Cristiano Ronaldo suffering due to the absence of Benzema
Before you throw away your device, let me explain... first let me state that Marco Asensio is one of the best U-21 players around at the moment, anywhere, while anyone who has read point #5 on the first slide will know that Isco to me is pure footballing joy.
In the context of Ronaldo, though, they are completely different from the two characters he has reveled with; Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. The reason why BBC has worked so well is that Bale has looked to pick out the man who is arguably the best finisher of the three - Ronaldo - whenever he can while Benzema's incessant, and intelligent, off-the-ball movement has continuously opened up spaces all across the attacking third for Ronaldo to attack.
Isco and Asensio, though are more direct and look to take shots at goals themselves whenever they can - the two were even more guilty of ignoring Gareth Bale's many sublime runs against Real Sociedad (whilst Ronaldo was out suspended) a fortnight previously. Carefree and unafraid, youthful enthusiasm and courage filling them to the brim, this direct approach has often meant they ignore others around them in their search for glory -and while this does not seem to have affected the team spirit at the moment, how that makes Ronaldo feel is anybody's guess.
Just how bad is it for CR7? The great man has attempted more shots without scoring than any other player in La Liga this season (and has just got four of them on target)
Like Isco said, though, he is scoring in the Champions League and it's only a matter of time before he puts this nasty goalless streak in La Liga to bed. The question is, though, how many more will Messi get in that time?
