La Liga at Xmas: Madrid in Control, but Volatility Suggests Nothing Is Decided

The accusation thrown at him is that he's lucky, and the man himself agrees. "I do have a lucky star," said Zinedine Zidane, per AS.com. "I always thought that when I was a player and now, I am having a lot of luck to be going though all of this and I am going to enjoy it as much as I can."

Zidane was speaking inside the press room at the Bernabeu, where that man had done it again; where all of them had done it again. Those final moments against Deportivo La Coruna were defined by Sergio Ramos, but those moments seemed to define the collective, too.

This is a Real Madrid team that just won't lose. No matter the opposition or the situation, no matter their own mistakes or vulnerabilities, Madrid keep finding a way. Rarely this season have Zidane's men looked truly invincible, but to focus on that also misses the point. Ramos' header against Depor extended the club's unbeaten run to 35 games; the victories in Japan at the Club World Cup took it to 37. There's something about Madrid that's impossible to ignore: a spirit, a belief, a resilience. Or is it luck? 

Zidane's comment could be interpreted as confirmation that it is, but you sense that's not how he meant it. He recognises he's fortunate to have this chance, but the Frenchman has always been a fierce competitor behind that serene exterior. His incessant use of the word "intensity" is reflective of a man who believes in cause and effect. And at what point can it not possibly be luck? 

You can get lucky across two games, five games and maybe even 10 games. But across 37? It can't be luck anymore if their last defeat was eight months ago; if their least defeat in the league was two months before that. 

Of those 37 games, 24 have come this season, 15 of them in the league. A record of 11 wins and four draws has them three points clear of Barcelona at the top with the added bonus of a game in hand. Win it, and the gap becomes six to the Catalans and seven to Sevilla; more than 10 to anyone else. 

Zidane insists that his team "haven't achieved anything yet," but though you know what he means, it's not strictly true.

What they've achieved is forging a togetherness and a force of will that wasn't there before the Frenchman came along. There are now more of the intangibles to go with the talent. This is a team that works harder than it did before, that has a greater array of solutions and consistently responds to being challenged. 

It's been evident right from the beginning this season. We've seen it against Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo, against Villarreal and Athletic Club Bilbao, against Barcelona and Depor. Each time flaws have been there, but each time Madrid have compensated for them with something else. Or someone else. 

Dominant clubs usually have settled XIs, but Madrid haven't had that. Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Casemiro, Marcelo and Ramos are among the major names to have spent time on the sidelines with injury this season. Normally you'd expect such a casualty list to have a catastrophic effect, but in this case it hasn't.

One of the hallmarks of this team is that Zidane is getting something from everyone: strong stand-in performances from Isco, sublime cameos from Lucas Vazquez, late goals from Mariano, promise from Marco Asensio and important bursts from Mateo Kovacic. 

Madrid have become a sort of imperfect juggernaut that just keeps rolling despite a couple of flat tyres and an engine that misfires quite a bit. In being so, what they've achieved is the building of a platform for themselves. They're in control of all this, but control is a funny thing in La Liga this season. 

Though Zidane's men have a grip on the league for now, perhaps the overriding theme of La Liga this term has been the way the country's heavyweights often haven't had a complete grip in games.

Rejecting all the cliches and stereotypes, La Liga has become a thrilling and frenetic affair in 2016-17. Every week there's an upset. Every week a team who'd been struggling explodes. Every week a team who'd been flying trips up. 

There's a volatility about the Primera Division this season that hasn't always been there, born out of a league-wide competitiveness that's becoming impossible to dispute. 

Suddenly, there are genuine tests everywhere. Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo can play you off the park. Las Palmas can pass you to death. Villarreal can cut you apart in a matter of seconds. Athletic can battle in the most literal sense of the word better than anyone. Espanyol and Alaves can stifle you. And don't go taking any chances with tiny Eibar; you'll get punished for that. 

"There are no easy games in the league so we have to know how to suffer until the end," Zidane has said this season, per Marca. "It will be like this all season long." He's right, too. 

Zidane's men still face another five months of fending Barcelona off, but it's not just about Barcelona. To fend off Luis Enrique's men, they've got to fend off everyone else in a way that's becoming increasingly difficult. 

Though Madrid have already been successful at the Vicente Calderon and Anoeta, soon after the Christmas break, they face trips to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, where Jorge Sampaoli's men are flying with some of the boldest football seen anywhere; to Balaidos, where Celta ravaged Barcelona; to El Madrigal, where Fran Escriba has released Villarreal and where the Yellow Submarine hammered Atletico Madrid; to Mestalla, where Valencia always present a fierce challenge to the big boys regardless of their turmoil. 

There's no sense of comfort for the usual faces this time around. Barcelona and Atletico are evidence of that. The Catalans have made their worst start to a season in almost a decade, and Diego Simeone's bunch have never had so few points after 16 games. And the thing is, both own their best squads in years, and it hasn't mattered. 

La Liga's next crop hasn't been this strong in years, and there's also a wildness to the way games and rounds are unfolding, predictability evaporating. After trampling Barcelona, Real Sociedad were hammered 5-1 by Depor. After struggling against Leganes and Alaves, Villarreal torched Atletico. After looking like Barcelona against Barcelona, Sevilla looked like Granada against Granada. 

It's this volatility more than their own imperfections that suggests Madrid's lead is a delicate thing. As Zidane has said over and over this season, there are "no easy games" in La Liga. Perhaps never before has that been so true.