“We know this isn’t normal,” said Aleix García and yet, he insisted, nor was it chance. Either way, it was historic. At 8.20pm on 27 September 2023, the other García, Eric, headed in the goal that put their team into the lead against Villarreal, on course for another win, to carry them above Real Madrid, above Barcelona and above everyone else. This isn’t supposed to happen, but it had. On the long bus journey home, heading up the east coast in the dark, even the manager admitted he had scrolled through his phone and taken the screengrab that proved it. Pop to the kiosko on Thursday morning, if he could find one, and there it is to cut out and keep: Girona Futbol Club are top of the league.

The city with the best restaurant in the world now has the best football team in Spain. Maybe even in Europe: across the five biggest leagues, no one has more points than Girona and no one is more excited to be there. “Euphoric,” Eric García said, and why not? The last team to reach primera – the club that only got there in 2017 and was gone again two years later – and the team that returned just 15 months ago, stands at the top of it for the first time ever.

The 41st club to conclude a round of games up there – the last to become a league leader was Villarreal in 2015 – they had been taken there by a sixth win in a row. “There are no words left to describe this team,” wrote Diari de Girona, somehow finding 788 of them. It was just a pity, their coach said, that they play Real Madrid in three days.

Or is it?

No one had a top-of-the-table clash in mind when they looked up Madrid’s trip to Montilivi, a ground that has holds only 14,624, some of them on scaffolding stands. But there it is: 6.30pm on Saturday, first versus second, a twist on that classic match between the capital’s giants and Catalonia’s best team. The sides immediately below Girona are Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic: between them, they have 279 top-flight seasons; Girona have three. A city of 97,586 people, scene to Game of Thrones and with plenty else to do, this is not a football-mad place. Although they are the team Carles Puigdemont supports, they hold little political power, overshadowed by Barcelona, 99km down the road.

Their target this season could only be survival, they said. Last year, they finished 10th, 39 points off the top, and had overachieved. Then they lost the central piece from their midfield, Oriol Romeu, to Barcelona for €3.5m – “they’re not doing us any favours,” the club’s owner said. They also lost their top scorer, Taty Castellanos; their best winger, Rodrigo Riquelme; and their centre-back, Santi Bueno, who could only be more aptly titled if his middle name was Moi. All of them played at least 33 of 38 league games last season. Six players came in, two on loan and one on a free, for little more than €15m, their salary limit set at €51.98m. Compare that to Madrid’s €727.45m. Only six clubs are under €50m.

And, yes, this is where the and yet comes. And yet, there’s no guarantee that it ends on Saturday night. More importantly, there’s no guarantee it crumbles completely. The last time Madrid were at Montilivi, Girona put four past them and they went into the final day of last season with half a chance of clinching a European slot. “We know it’s very hard for this to continue,” Eric García admitted on Wednesday night and he was right. It is right too that none of the six teams they’ve beaten – Sevilla, Granada, Mallorca, Villarreal, Las Palmas and Getafe – are higher than 10th (and may yet finish this round lower). But those 19 points will never be taken away, meaning they’re already halfway to survival after just seven weeks. They also give Girona a nine-point gap between them and the last European place, an opportunity for objectives to shift.

Besides, this isn’t about the numbers and, as Aleix García said, it is not chance. There’s something far more basic, made clear again: Girona are very good at football. Although Villarreal took the lead through a Dani Parejo penalty, they came back to win 2-1 and could have added a third, fourth or fifth. Cristhian Stuani might have had a hat-trick in four minutes. They took 17 shots, cutting their opponents apart. “This is a team that knows it goes forward,” the coach said; it is not the classic small promoted team that overachieves by booting the ball or opponents, by parking the bus. In their games last season there were four 2-2s, three 3-2s, a 4-2, a 5-3 and a 6-2; this season, it’s not just that no team in Europe has more points, it’s that no team has more goals either.

“We’re enjoying this a lot,” Aleix García said, and it shows.

Just look at the wingers: Viktor Tsygankov is a superb player, not just a list of flu symptoms. On the other side, 19-year-old Brazilian Savinho – signed on loan from Troyes who, like Girona, are owned by the City Football Group – was not wanted by PSV and was not happy either but has provided four assists and two goals already and may just be the most exciting footballer in La Liga at the moment. His coach, Míchel Sánchez, said he hadn’t seen a player have his impact, his ability to beat people one on one, since Vinícius. “He’s a discovery for me,” Eric García admitted. “He’s incredible: you see today what he did to [Juan] Foyth, who is one of the best defenders in the league.” But it is all of them: their 18 goals have been scored by 11 different players; 10 of them have been scored inside the six-yard box, Girona taking the game all the way to their opponents.

Even those opponents can’t help but like it, Villarreal coach Pacheta describing them as “admirable” on Wednesday night. “They’re the team that play the best football in primera division,” said the Villarreal midfielder Ramon Terrats. “It’s lovely to see them play. It’s hard when you’re against them but they’re nice to watch.”

This is the triumph of an idea, right through the club. Girona are owned by Pep Guardiola’s brother, Pere, and by CFG. Although this is not a team stuffed with Manchester City’s talent – footballers who will inevitably become superstars – the link-up contributes players (Castellanos was part of the City group, as are Yangel Herrera, Yan Couto and Savinho) and a plan. There is support and stability, and above all an identity. The president Delfí Geli and the sporting director Quique Cárcel have been in place since 2015, through promotion, relegation and promotion again. The coach too has been backed fully.

Sevilla 5-1 Almería, Mallorca 2-2 Barcelona, Athletic Club 2-2 Getafe, Real Madrid 2-0 Las Palmas, Villarreal 1-2 Girona, Valencia 0-1 Real Sociedad, Cádiz 0-0 Rayo Vallecano

Thursday: Celta Vigo v Alavés, Granada v Real Betis, Osasuna v Atlético Madrid

A Rayo Vallecano legend, they call him Míchel I of Vallecas – and yes there is a Míchel II, who has been coach of the Madrid representative team – and he joined Girona in the summer of 2021 after Francisco walked away. Míchel had not expected to work at all that year, and after a difficult start might not have expected to work for much longer, slipping towards the relegation in the second division. But his ideas was theirs and the support was there. Instantly likable, a man who immediately began trying to learn Catalan, insisting on speaking it and more importantly listening to it in press conferences and around the club, he fit too. And by the end of the season, Girona were in a playoff place. If that did not guarantee anything, except the appearance of old ghosts, old fears – they had lost out in the playoffs in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2021, reaching the final in five of the six season – this time they came up.

Míchel had brought Rayo and Huesca up in 2018 and 2020, respectively, but was sacked midway through the following seasons, watching from a distance as they went down again. This time was better: he was different – he says he had learned to accept that there would be times his team could not attack – and so was the club. “What most matters is the day-to-day work, and this is the place where I have felt best, where there has been the most trust,” he says. “There’s continuity, and that gives us tranquility. This summer we signed players very, very much in line with our ideas.”

Last season they almost reached Europe and now, just 15 months after reaching the first division, they lead it for the first time ever, and flying. Feet on the ground was the phrase that kept getting repeated, but in the dressing room … “well, you can imagine it,” Eric García said. “We have to enjoy this while we can.” Futbol Club Girona were top of the league, and everything was perfect. Well, almost everything. There was just one problem, Míchel said: “It’s week seven, not 38.”