Real Madrid 4-0 Malaga: Bellingham's Solo Goal and Mbappe's Volley Keep Mourinho Perfect

Jude Bellingham playing for Real Madrid. He opened the scoring against Malaga on Sunday. Photo: Junta de Andalucía, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Jude Bellingham picked the ball up 35 yards from goal, went past three Malaga players without breaking stride, and put it beyond Alfonso Herrero. That was the 19th minute. Real Madrid won 4-0 and Jose Mourinho has now won all three of his league games since returning to the club.

The first 30 minutes did it

Bellingham was involved again seven minutes later. He headed at goal, Herrero parried, and the ball bounced back off the goalkeeper and over the line. The record books call it a Herrero own goal. Nobody in white cared much either way.

The third arrived before the half-hour and came from an unlikely source in the current England conversation. Trent Alexander-Arnold, left out of the World Cup squad this summer, crossed from the right and Kylian Mbappe volleyed it in. Game over as a contest with 60 minutes still to play.

Arda Guler added a fourth in stoppage time, tapping in after Vinicius Junior broke and pulled the ball back from the byeline.

Mourinho on his three forwards

The pre-season line was that Mourinho would not be able to fit Bellingham, Vinicius and Mbappe into the same team without one of them suffering. He addressed it directly afterwards.

"Very, very good players want to play together always, because they have the same speed of thought, the same quality and they always have to be compatible," he said. "It was said that I didn't want the three, but what I say is that I always want the best. There is empathy and collective work. They are all very good."

On Bellingham specifically: "He is an incredible player. He is very demanding of himself and he is also demanding of others. I didn't want to see him defend almost like a second left-back." That last line is the most Mourinho sentence of the season so far, and it explains where the goal came from. Bellingham is being asked to start his runs 35 yards higher up than he did last year.

Second time around

Mourinho managed Real Madrid from 2010 to 2013, winning the Copa del Rey in his first season and La Liga in his second. He came back in the summer. Three games, three wins, nine points, top of the table.

Barcelona can match that tally on Monday if they beat Rayo Vallecano at home.

Bellingham, for his part, has two league goals already and scored seven at the World Cup as England finished third. He also scored in the opening 2-1 win at Espanyol. Whatever Mourinho has said to him in private, it is working.