Four Spanish teams boast a 100 per cent record after the Primera Liga's opening three games. Barcelona and Real Madrid are to be expected, Atletico Madrid are a mild surprise, but no one would have predicted Villarreal's start.
The promoted Yellow Submarine will not stay in the top four.
Their aim this season was to stay up and they will be wary of what happened last season, when Mallorca won their first three games and still went down.
But it is still hugely encouraging for Marcelino, the manager, after a summer in which they lost a number of player: Marcos Senna to the Cosmos, Olaf Mellberg to FC Copenhagen and Javi Venta to Brentford. Juanma joined Alaves.
The Colombian defender Cristian Zapata was the only sale in a €6 million (Dh29m) deal to AC Milan. Villarreal's annual playing budget is €50m against €90m when they went down in 2012.
Yet they still have the backing of Fernando Roig and spent €16m in the summer.
Giovani dos Santos from Mallorca cost €6m, and €5m went on Tomas Pina from the same club.
Jeremy Perbet cost €1.4m from Mons, Gabriel Paulista €3.3m from Vitoria in Brazil and Aleksander Pantic €300,000 from Red Star Belgrade. The goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo came from Atletico in a wise loan move.
Villarreal have a mix of home-grown youth and experience.
The midfielders Cani and Bruno Soriano are experienced and good enough to play Champions League football.
They will not aim that high, but so far so good.
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