Kylian Mbappe’s return from injury was expected to boost Real Madrid’s squad and performances on the field, especially given how he has been the team’s top goalscorer all season.

Yet, the reality has been far from that and it is clear that the player’s return has not seen the team pick up positive results in any capacity.

On the contrary, Real Madrid performed exceedingly well without him on the field, both in terms of results and their performances themselves.

Los Blancos played seven games across all competitions without Mbappe as a starter between February and March, of which they won six and lost just one.

The last five games before Mbappe returned as a starter against Mallorca, in fact, ended in five straight wins for the club.

In the games against Celta Vigo, Elche, Atletico Madrid and two games against Manchester City, Real Madrid scored 14 goals and conceded just five.

Real Madrid have failed to win three games in a row. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

He returned as a starter against Mallorca after the international break and the team immediately slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

The Merengues then lost by the same scoreline to Bayern Munich before earning just a draw against Girona last night.

Correlation may not imply causation, but it is clear that Mbappe’s return has directly seen the results of the team take a turn for the worse. What action is taken given the findings, however, is a question for Alvaro Arbeloa to ponder deeply on.

So far this season, the Frenchman has made 26 league appearances for Real Madrid and has a staggering 23 goals and four assists to show. He has created eight big chances and averages 2.2 key passes per game.

The only downside of his involvement, however, is seemingly the lack of a constant work rate off the ball.