REAL MADRID
Bale in the middle of a drought in front of goal
On Saturday, it will be 140 days since Bale's last goal for Real Madrid despite the fact that he has restored himself in Zidane's plane.
Gareth Bale is back. He missed the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia with a respiratory issue but is available again for the Sevilla game at the Bernabéu on Saturday but he needs to find his shooting boots. With 104 goals in 245 games since he arrived at Madrid, he has come to be relied on to score but he has scored in just one game in 14 this season. His double against Villarreal saved Madrid from defeat but that was back on September 1.
On Saturday, it will be 140 days without a goal for the Welshman. He has played 686 minutes this season without scoring. His record is 916 minutes without a goal at the end of 2010-11 and the start of the 2011-12 season with Tottenham Hotspur.
In his six seasons at Real Madrid, he has scored in double digits four times in six years. Despite his injuries, which have had an impact on his performance, he had 10 goals at this stage last year. During the 2014-15 season and the 2015-16 season, at this point, he had 12 goals. In 2017-18, he had seven which is more than triple his current tally.
Bale unlucky in front of goal
His performances have been very good and that little bit of luck seems to have deserted him at times when a centimetre or two the other side of the post might have seen him score. He has two efforts against PSG, for example, that went very close. His free kick his the post in the last minute. During the Clásico in November, he scored but it was ruled out for offside on Mendy, who delivered him the ball.
Bale will be hoping he finds that little bit of luck on Saturday when Sevilla arrive in town looking to, as Joan Jordan puts it, "fight like animals."