Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad: Will Los Blancos capitalise on Atletico’s woes?

Capitalising on an Atletico slip-up, Real Madrid moved within just three points of their inner-city rivals having played one more game than Diego Simeone's side, as the race at the top of La Liga begins to heat up.

A sole Casemiro goal helped Los Blancos leave Valladolid with a hard-fought 1-0 victory and three crucial points as their age-old enemies slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Levante at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Fortunes also turned in the favour of Zinedine Zidane's side elsewhere in La Liga, as a dramatic last-minute penalty helped Cadiz equalise against a struggling Barcelona, which saw the Catalonians drop to fourth place as a result.

The win at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla was a fourth successive league victory for Real - who have won five of their last six La Liga games - and the continuation of this winning streak at the Santiago Bernabeu on Monday is pivotal for their emerging title charge to take shape.

Los Blancos will face Real Sociedad in the Spanish capital next, and with Imanol Algacuil's side sitting firmly in fifth place after a superb season so far, they will need to be at their very best to take all three points.

La Reales are unbeaten in their last five games - picking up their third straight win in a 4-0 decimation of Alaves at the weekend, and with their fearless, free-flowing football being pitted against Real's title-hungry aspirations, we could well be in for a thriller.

Let's take a look at the statistics.

Los Blancos have the far superior win percentage of the two (56%), having recorded 87 victories in 156 games, with Sociedad (19%) coming out on top 30 times, and the two sharing the points on 39 occasions.

Madrid certainly have the home advantage in this fixture, winning 57 home ties to just five Sociedad away victories, and went unbeaten against La Reales for over 60 years at the Santiago Bernabeu between a period of 1928 and 1990.

Of the 530 goals scored throughout the fixtures between the two, Madrid have scored 63% (333) with Alguacil's side finding the net 197 times, there is an average of 3.39 goals scored per game.

The biggest victory for Los Blancos came in a 9-1 home decimation of Sociedad in the 1967/68 La Liga season, suffering their heaviest defeat in a 6-2 drubbing in September, 1950.

In the last five meetings between the two, both sides have been evenly matched, with two wins apiece and a 0-0 draw that occurred in the second match week of this current La Liga season.

There have been a total of 18 goals across these games, could we be in store for another goal fest or will the two sides cancel each other out as they did in the reverse fixture?

Let's take a look at some classic encounters between the two sides.

A vanquished Sociedad fell to a heavy defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu, as a five-star performance from Cristiano Ronaldo helped Madrid put five past their hapless opponents,

As he recorded his 23rd hat-trick for Carlo Ancelotti's side, the illustrious number-seven opened the scoring for Los Blancos with a half-volley at the back post, just six minutes later and he'd helped to double the lead, finding Karim Benzema for the second, who curled the ball home in style.

The Portugal international soon made it three from the penalty spot as Sami Khedira rounded off a perfect first half for the boys from the Bernabeu, as they went into half-time four goals to the good.

Antoinne Griezmann provided some - albeit slim - hope for the visitors on the hour mark before Ronaldo finally put the game to bed with a scintillating free-kick from 25 yards out.

Another heroic hat-trick and assist from Cristiano Ronaldo (shock) helped Los Blancos comfortably thrash Sociedad at the Santiago Bernabeu as they continued to chase the runaway league leaders, Barcelona.

Starting as they wished to go on, Madrid went ahead in less than a minute when CR7 found Lucas Vazquez with a perfect cross, who effectively executed the task of heading it home, as the hosts took an early lead.

Ronaldo also played a crucial part in the second - this time as the scorer - finishing a low-driven ball from Marcelo on the left hand side and a long-range effort from Toni

Kroos added the third.

Scoring either side of two Sociedad constellation goals, the prolific Portuguese talisman headed in a Luka Modric corner before tapping in from close range to complete his hat-trick.

A host of late goals sealed an impressive win for Los Blancos, as they hit Sociedad for four at the Anoeta Stadium

Following a closely-contested first half, it was Madrid who broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time when Karim Benzema's strike was palmed out by Claudio Bravo as far as Asier Illarramendi, who gave Real the lead.

The pick of the bunch came when Gareth Bale doubled the lead in the 66th minute - capitalising on a Sociedad defensive calamity, the Welshman struck a scintillating left-footed effort into the bottom left corner of the goal from 25 yards.

Finishing strong in the last 10 minutes, an unorthodox goalscorer in Pepe added the third for the visitors from a volley before a finish from Alvaro Morata wrapped up proceedings in style.

Dreams of a win for David Moyes in his time in charge of Sociedad were dashed as Madrid fought back from conceding early to remain four points clear at the top of La Liga.

Amazingly, the visitors went ahead after just 38 seconds, Aritz Elustondo headed in an in-swinging corner, as the very first chance of the match lead to a goal - sadly for La Reales, they could only hold on to their early lead for no more than three minutes, James Rodriguez levelled the tie with a rare header of his own.

Real spent the next half-hour pushing for a second, and their persistence was rewarded when a captain's goal from Sergio Ramos completed the comeback, volleying home after a scramble in the Sociedad box.

Karim Benzema scored twice in the first half to win yet another game for the Bernabeu outfit as they went four points clear of Barcelona at the top whilst Sociedad's winless streak away from home continued.

In a game known for its high scoring, we are certainly due some goals in this tie following the goalless draw earlier this season, and having been provided a lifeline to chase Atletico, Madrid should have enough quality to edge this one.

Paddy Power are offering 13/5 odds on both teams to score and Real Madrid to win.

(Odds correct at time of writing, subject to change).