Los Blancos have become worryingly reliant on the French forward for goals and assists, with many of his team-mates contributing little to the cause

Real Madrid are one Karim Benzema injury away from a crisis.

Yet even with the sublime Frenchman fit and firing, and arch-rivals Barcelona attracting attention down in the dumps, nerves have frayed in the Spanish capital.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side suffered a frustrating goalless draw at home against Villarreal, who might even have won the game, before going down at home embarrassingly against minnows Sheriff in the Champions League.

The Moldovan minnows recorded a historic 2-1 victory before a bemused Santiago Bernabeu crowd.

Madrid suffered a defeat by the same scoreline away at Espanyol afterwards, their first loss in 25 La Liga games. It has been a chaotic opening to the season for Los Blancos.

An early slew of wins seemed to get Ancelotti’s second spell at the helm off to a good start but under closer analysis, cracks appear.

They needed two late goals to snatch a win at Valencia from the jaws of defeat, while Rodrygo’s 89th-minute winner at Inter gave them a vital cushion in Europe.

Had Madrid not left the San Siro with three points, the defeat by Sheriff would have led to calls for Ancelotti’s head already.

As things stand, it will go down as a humiliation but not a huge dent in their aspirations.

The Italian’s arrival to replace Zinedine Zidane was not greeted with much fanfare, as it seemed a stop-gap appointment with other preferred options unavailable. After all, Ancelotti’s time at Everton was largely uninspiring, tailing off after a strong start.

Some fear that decline has begun already in Madrid after an early run of fine goalscoring form, including a 5-2 win over Celta Vigo, a 4-1 triumph at Alaves and the 6-1 thumping of Real Mallorca.

Others point to the many injury absences in mitigation, although in recent years at Madrid, coaches just have to learn to live with it.