As a new La Liga season begins, Barcelona arrived not as a team seeking to prove itself, but as one reminding the league of what it already knows — that depth, cohesion, and confidence are their own kind of argument. A 5-0 dismantling of Elche on the road was less a result than a declaration, while Atletico Madrid's stumble against Villarreal, shadowed by crowd hostility toward a player who wishes to leave, offered an early reminder that even the powerful carry their contradictions into every new beginning.