There are rivals and Hansi Flick is competent, he was expected to lead the team to be in the very first spot on the La Liga table but why are we not seeing them occupying this spot? They need more time to exert excellent performance to elevate themselves among their oppositions. We wouldn't want to watch the current epic superb form of Barcelona because they're one of the best teams in Europe. We've watched them climbing and banging goals for the club, this is really one of the thrilling moments for them. Barcelona big win of 7-1 against Valencia was huge surprise and they're ontop. Always climbing and fighting their way to reach the very top.
I don't see this as anything special to be honest for me it's just like Arsenal in the Epl trashing other teams 5 or 4 goals to 1 while still being inconsistent to win the league.
What matters in domestic league is to get as much 3 points one can get although goal differences is important when both teams have similar points but still yet while Barcelona has been impressive they are still much inconsistent as before and this means that there have been somehow a little improvement than last season.
I agree, according to statistics (either the first 15 games or 20, I don't remember exactly) Flick's percentage of points scored is worse than Xavi's. Bright games mean nothing if the team plays poorly on average. At the moment (and it's far from the final stage of the season) Barcelona is out of the title race. Moreover, it cannot be said that Real has turned into a monster with the arrival of Mbappe - on the contrary, the team has many problems and is in the "setup" stage.