Yes, and let's say that Real Madrid faced a derby while Barcelona was a bit favored by the matches they faced. It's too early to understand if Real will be able to somehow compete against Barcelona, ??but I wouldn't write them off. Even if they played a bad match, they are still very strong.
Real Madrid is a very strong team. There is no reason to think that Real Madrid is weak just because they lost a match against Atletico Madrid. Real Madrid has a talented coach like Alonso and a strong squad.
El Clasico will be very competitive. This is Alonso's biggest challenge. Last season we saw Hansi Flick destroy every strategy of Ancelotti. Will the same thing happen to Alonso? It is possible. Because Barcelona is a very organized team. Since last season we have seen Barcelona perform well against big teams and score a lot. Barcelona won every match against Madrid by a big margin. We are all waiting to see how these two best teams in La Liga will perform when they meet this season.