Real rain down on Barcelona
Real Madrid gained revenge for their humiliation 12 months ago when they beat bitter rivals Barcelona 2-0 in a match played in torrential rain.
All the talk in the Spanish capital since Barca won 3-0 in the Santiago Bernabeu last season has been of showing that Real are not now permanently inferior to the European champions and they proved their point.
"This is a total change of image. I spoke to the team for a long time after last week's defeat at Getafe," said Real coach Fabio Capello.
"We knew that we had to take this match seriously. We were playing the European champions not a third division side."
"The first 20 minutes we played very well, very dangerous, but they could have still come back and equalised. However, in the second half we were much better than them."
The 29-time Spanish champions opened up the Spanish title race with goals from club captain Raul Gonzalez and Ruud Van Nistelrooy and were by far the better side.
The loss means that Barcelona remain top with 16 points from seven games but only on goal difference from Valencia.
Real, who still have the best defensive record in La Liga, climbed up to fourth place with just two points covering the top five clubs in the first division.
"This game we concentrated hard. It's a long season ahead but to beat the Spanish champions and the European champions in this fashion will be a great boost to our confidence," said Real's Brazilian left back Roberto Carlos.
The hosts took only two minutes to open the scoring when captain Raul Gonzalez was left unmarked to head in front from the edge of the six yard box.
It was a relatively easy task for Raul to score after the hard work had been done by Sergio Ramos, whose swift sprint down the right wing caught Barcelona on the hop.
Raul almost had a second goal after 14 minutes when his left foot shot, after Robinho had danced past several Barca defenders, evaded goalkeeper Victor Valdes only to for the ball to crash against the crossbar.
Barcelona squandered a good chance to equalise after 25 minutes when Eidur Gudjohnsen had a clear shot on goal.
Wonderful work down the right wing by Lionel Messi set up the opportunity but the Icelandic striker could only sidefoot the ball wide of the target.
The Catalan club came back into the game in the final 10 minutes and had Real briefly rattled at the start of the second half.
However, a counter-attack from Robinho on 51 minutes found Van Nistlerooy free in the box and the Dutchman deftly put a left foot volley past Valdes.
Van Nistelrooy nearly got his second goal just a minute later when his chip hit the post.
Real continued to press and the unflagging Robinho, many pundit's nomination for the man of the match, had two more good efforts on goal.
Barcelona's best effort was a curling free kick by Ronaldinho three minutes from the end, which required a save at full stretch by Casillas, but the statistics told the story of Barcelona's demise.
Only two of their 11 shots were on target and clearly they are missing Samuel Eto'o, last season's top scorer in the Spanish first division, who will be out with an injury until the start of next year.
"I'm disappointed but not worried. They are three points closer now to Barcelona and psychologically that is important," said Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard.
"But from the first day I said that Real were going to be competitive. It's always possible to lose games like this because this is a league with many teams that are close together, like Valencia and Sevilla as well."
Former England captain David Beckham came off the bench eight minutes from the whistle for Real, replacing Jose Maria Gutierrez, but within three minutes had been booked for kicking the ball away.
Beckham was quoted in British newspapers on Sunday as saying that he was very frustrated with his role as bench-warmer at Real.