It's been a surprisingly subdued first month of La Liga 2015 - 2016 competition. Reigning champs FC Barcelona are back in the lead and have won all four of their games so far, but aren't quite firing on all cylinders just yet. In fact, Barca have only scored eight goals in their four matches-less than the teams in second (Real Madrid), third (Villarreal), and fourth place (Celta de Vigo). Real Madrid's Vikings, meanwhile, have been on blast offensively but are lagging behind Barcelona thanks to a scoreless season opener against Sporting Gijon.
Barcelona's Slow Start
To say that Barca have had a "slow start" in the 2015 2016 La Liga may be a bit of an exaggeration. After all, they've obviously done enough to put themselves back in the frontrunner position for this season's title. However, on the heels of a season where Barcelona's players scored a combined total of 110 goals-81 of them from the untouchable front line of Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez-the football club definitely seems to be taking it a bit easier this year.
Indeed, across their first four matches, Barcelona only scored eight goals. Messi netted three, Neymar tallied two, and Suarez one. The other two points came from defenders Marc Bartra and Thomas Vermaelen.
Furthermore, half of those goals came from just one match. 
In their first three games of the season, Barcelona were scoring just one or two goals a match. They still won those games, of course. A 1-0 win against Athletic Bilbao marked the start of Barca's season while weeks two and three brought similarly narrow margin victories over Malaga (1-0) and Atletico Madrid (2-1).
In fact, it wasn't until a week four win against Levante (4-1) that FC Barcelona looked like themselves. That game saw Messi scoring a brace for the first time all season, and also featured goals from Neymar and Bartra.
Compare these first four weeks to Barca's 2014 2015 season introduction, and it's easier to see how low key the 2015 2016 campaign has been for the club so far. In the first month of the 2014 2015 season, Barcelona nabbed two huge victories (a 3-0 win over Elche and a 5-0 triumph at Levante) and two other shutouts (1-0 at Villarreal, 2-0 against Athletic Bilbao) for a +11 goal difference. The football club's current GD is only +6.
Real Madrid and the Other Contenders
Other than their uncharacteristically sleepy season opener, meanwhile, Real Madrid have been on fire so far this season. They've scored both the biggest home win (5-0 against Real Betis) and the biggest away win (6-0, at Espanyol) of the La Liga season so far, and have a total tally of 12 goals. Five of those came from Cristiano Ronaldo-all of them in the Espanyol match. Another three, meanwhile, have come from Karim Benzema, who tallied the only goal in Real's week four win against Granada.
Perhaps the key player for Real so far has been goalkeeper, Keilor Navas. Navas hasn't played a full season since 2013 2014, when he was the starting keeper for Levante. Last year, he spent most of his time on the bench, while an aging Iker Casillas continued to occupy the Real Madrid net. This season, with Casillas gone, Navas is the first-choice keeper, 
and he's making his time in the net count. So far, he's kept four clean sheets for the Vikings.
Real's impressive goal difference puts the club on top of a pack of contenders that are just a hair behind Barcelona in the standings. Along with the Vikings, both Villarreal and Celta Vigo have tallied three wins and one draw, good for 10 points in the standings. Atletico Madrid, last season's third placers, are currently in fifth thanks to their loss against Barcelona.
The fourth and fifth place soccer squads from the 2014 2015 table, meanwhile, have both had slow starts. Valencia have tallied three draws and one minor win (1-0, against Sporting Gijon) for a seventh-place spot. Sevilla, on the other hand, are in crisis mode after two draws and two losses have left them at the very bottom of the table.
What does month one tell us about the 2015 2016 La Liga? Are Barcelona just biding their time before turning up the heat? Or should we expect to see the colors of the Real Madrid home jersey 2015 2016 at the top of the podium come next May? At Soccer Box, we want to hear your thoughts! Link up with us on social media to share any predictions you might have for 2015 2016 Spanish football. Soccer Box is active daily on multiple social networks including Instagram, Pinterest, and Google +.
