Gareth Bale scores 100th Real Madrid goal

Is Gareth Bale's time in Spain coming to an end?

Yes, yes… you've heard it all before.

It feels as though the flying winger has spent almost his entire five-and-a-half year Real Madrid career being confronted by rumours that the club are preparing to sell him, and the build-up to Saturday's derby at Atletico Madrid was no different.

After being sidelined by the latest in a long line of injuries during the opening weeks of 2019, the former Tottenham man has again slipped down the pecking order, relegated to the subs' bench behind rising star Vinicius Jr and hard-working Lucas Vazquez, a personal favourite of coach Santiago Solari.

Most fans have been in no hurry to see Bale recalled: in an online poll by newspaper AS, 54% wanted the Welshman to stay on the bench despite recovering from injury, while 37% said Vazquez should not start and just 9% wanted Vinicius to be dropped. And that was even before the return of another popular wide man, Marco Asensio.

Poor displays last weekend against Alaves and in midweek at Barcelona hardly helped Bale's cause, and former Real star Predrag Mijatovic summed up the general mood by telling the Cadena SER radio network that Bale was approaching "his last opportunity", ominously adding: "We are all fed up with him."

And with Eden Hazard seemingly set for a summer move to the Bernabeu to further increase the competition for places in attack, surely this latest round of reports that Bale is on his way out will finally prove to be accurate. Won't they?

Reminder of talents… but remaining aloof

Bale's points-clinching century strike partly overshadowed the involvement of two more players - both of whom previously played for Chelsea - who faced an interesting reception from Atletico fans inside the Wanda Metropolitano.

Firstly, there was a home debut for Alvaro Morata. His arrival at Atletico last month was controversial because he had previously progressed through Real Madrid's youth ranks to play almost 100 games for Los Blancos, helping secure a La Liga and Champions League double in 2017.

However, it's not quite as straightforward as that, because Morata had already performed the 'turncoat' act during his youth, having originally joined Atletico as a child before leaving to join nearby Getafe and only then moving again to Real at the age of 15.

And when he signed for Atletico in January, the Spain striker and his new club were quick to underline his credentials as a lifelong fan, with Morata tweeting a photo of himself as a young boy wearing a red and white replica shirt.

There was still a fairly significant element of opposition to his signature among Atletico fans, so a dream home debut against his former club would have gone a long way towards winning over the dissenters.

After initially looking like a player who has not scored a league goal since November, he showed his pedigree with a brilliant first touch and then a delicate lobbed finish, only to be ruled offside.

When Morata was replaced with 20 minutes to go, he headed to the sidelines with the vast majority of the stadium offering warm applause, and just a few Atletico fans failing to forgive his Real past by whistling him to the bench.

Most of their whistles, though, were reserved for someone else…