Real Madrid were two up at half-time at the bottom club, and Carlos Espí won it in the 91st

Carlos Espí had been on the pitch a matter of minutes when Kylian Mbappé laid the ball into his path in the first minute of stoppage time. He scored. Real Madrid beat Elche 3-2 at the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero on Tuesday, and a substitute signed in the summer has now directly won them four of the fifteen points they have.

Two up at half-time against the bottom club

The first half was the straightforward part. Arda Güler hit a free-kick from 25 yards that came back off the far post, ran along the line, and went in off Matías Dituro, so the goal went down as an own goal against the Elche goalkeeper rather than to the man who struck it. Eight minutes later Yan Diomandé pulled the ball back across the six-yard box and Mbappé finished it. He leads the La Liga scoring charts on seven.

At half-time Elche had nothing. They had taken two points from five matches before kick-off, had not won a game all season, and had just conceded twice in eight minutes without forcing Real Madrid to do anything difficult.

And then an hour of it went wrong

Abiel Osorio scored in the 71st minute. Fer Niño made it 2-2 in the 83rd. For seven minutes plus stoppage time Elche were level with Real Madrid having been two down, and the home crowd at the Martínez Valero were watching a team with two points all season about to take a third.

Then Espí. He had come off the bench in the closing minutes, he took a pass from Mbappé, and he put Real Madrid back in front in the 91st. His other goal this season was also a late winner, against Espanyol on the opening weekend. Two goals, two matches decided, four points, and he has played a fraction of the minutes the forwards ahead of him have.

What it says about Mourinho’s Madrid

The table looks fine. Real Madrid have 15 points from six games, five wins and one defeat, a goal difference of plus eleven, and they sit level on points with Barcelona, who have played a game fewer and go to it again on Wednesday night.

The performances have been another matter. Real Madrid beat Inter with 35 per cent of the ball last week and José Mourinho would not celebrate it. On Tuesday they were two goals up against the worst team in the division with an hour played and could not see the game out, and a 20th-placed side with two points and eight goals all season put two past them in twelve minutes.

Mourinho came back to the club in the summer after thirteen years away, and a first season back is allowed to look untidy while it works itself out. But a manager whose whole reputation is built on control has now watched his side lose a two-goal lead to the bottom club, and he has the Madrid derby to think about next. Espí keeps rescuing it. That is a good thing to have and a bad thing to need.

Catch up on the rest of the La Liga round