Athletic Bilbao started with three consecutive victories: Can they strive for the La Liga championship?

In the first three league games of the new season, Athletic Bilbao won three consecutive victories. This is also the fifth time in the club's history that it started with three consecutive victories.

The 2025/26 season has ended three rounds, and only two teams have maintained a complete victory. In addition to Real Madrid, the other team is Athletic Bilbao.

Since Ernesto Valverde returned in the summer of 2022, this Basque team has made progress year by year: ranked eighth in the 2022/23 season, promoted to fifth in the 2023/24 season and won the Copa del Rey. Last season, they ranked fourth, and entered the Champions League again after more than ten years.

Now entering the new season, Athletic Bilbao's performance is still stable. The team defeated Sevilla 3-2 and defeated Vallecano 1-0 at the San Mames Stadium, and then defeated Real Betis 2-1 away. Although the results of the warm-up match before the season were not ideal, Athletic Bilbao faced three difficult opponents at the beginning of the league and still delivered a perfect answer with three consecutive victories.

With this wave of winning streak, the team entered the international match day in September with 9 points. This is their first three-game winning streak since the 2009/10 season, and the fifth time in history. With this momentum, they will usher in a Basque derby against Alaves in the 4th round of the league.

Athletic Bilbao will strive for the La Liga championship?

In La Liga history, Athletic Bilbao has been crowned the league champions 8 times, second only to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. However, their last league championship was in the 1983/84 season, more than 40 years ago. It is worth mentioning that they haven't won the King's Cup two years ago for a long time, and the last time the team won this honor dates back to 1984. However, this long wait finally came to an end in the 2023/24 season, and Valverde led the team to successfully win the Copa del Rey. Coincidentally, the place to win the championship is the Katuha Stadium, and just this Monday, they defeated Real Betis at this stadium.

Now, many fans are beginning to look forward to: Will this lineup have the ability to win the league championship again and bring back the ninth La Liga trophy to the club? The team's core Nico Williams decided to stay at the San Mames Stadium this summer. The central defender combinations Dani Vivian and Aitol Paredes showed a solid defense, goalkeeper Unai Simon got rid of the injury, and Oyhan Sansette, Iniaki Williams, Alex Berenger and others were also in excellent form - this Athletic Bilbao does have strong strength.

However, coach Valverde remained calm and reminded the team to be down-to-earth. When talking about the perfect start, he said: "We started well and everyone is happy about it. But in fact, the competition for every game is very fierce, and the winner is often only one goal away. We must be clear about how to play every game well and maintain our fighting spirit. Having said that, the result of being able to start the new season with a full victory is naturally satisfactory."