Trent Alexander-Arnold helps show off Real Madrid's potential attacking balance with UCL looming

Madrid—Five minutes into Saturday night’s meeting with Real Sociedad, Trent Alexander-Arnold bent a pass around the Basque back line and onto the boot of Gonzalo Garcia for the opening goal. In that moment, the conversation that has dogged Real Madrid for much of the season—an attack short on balance—suddenly looked outdated. By the final whistle, the scoreboard at the Santiago Bernabéu read 4-1, the club’s eighth consecutive LaLiga victory, and the English right-back’s second assist of an injury-interrupted campaign had become the game’s defining snapshot.

Alexander-Arnold, signed from Liverpool ahead of the Club World Cup this summer, has managed only 12 appearances in all competitions while recovering from successive setbacks. Yet the 26-year-old’s reputation as one of the game’s premier creative full-backs preceded him, and his early ball on Saturday offered a glimpse of why Madrid moved for him. With the player spraying diagonal lasers from deep, teammates can concentrate on finding space higher up the pitch, while Federico Valverde is freed to drop into midfield rather than cover the flank.

Valverde’s positional switch paid dividends against Sociedad. Operating centrally, he combined with Vinicius Junior, who converted two second-half penalties to complete a brace and seal the result. The only blemish came when 19-year-old centre-back Dean Huijsen upended Mikel Oyarzabal, allowing the Spain forward to pull one back from the spot.

Manager Alvaro Arbeloa will still crave sharper open-play chances after halftime, but the absence of Kylian Mbappé—whose 38 goals in all competitions have defined Madrid’s attack—made the four-goal haul encouraging. The victory also keeps pressure on league leaders Barcelona and restores momentum ahead of a decisive Champions League playoff against Benfica on Tuesday, a tie that exists only because Los Blancos fell to the Portuguese side on the final day of the league phase.

American coach Pellegrino Matarazzo has revived Real Sociedad, who remain 90 minutes from a Copa del Rey final, yet his side had no answer for Alexander-Arnold’s early incision or Vinicius’s composure from 12 yards. For Madrid, the task now is to translate Saturday’s balance into a convincing mid-week performance that propels them into the round of 16. Anything less, and the season’s remaining objectives—catching Barcelona domestically and pursuing European glory—will hang in the balance.