So far this season Atletico Madrid have looked a really good team, extremely hard to beat and breakdown. They have managed to win 3 out of 3 in La Liga, and they were unlucky not to win the Spanish Super Cup. Barcelona just edged it over the two legs, eventually winning the Cup on the away goal rule. Of the 5 games they’ve played so far, they’ve yet to lose one. The two games against Barcelona finished 1-1 in Madrid and 0-0 in Barcelona (Madrid finishing the 0-0 game with 9 men and Barcelona missing a penalty).They have beaten Sevilla 3-1, Rayo Vallecano 5-0 and Real Sociedad 2-1 in the league so far.
The game against Sevilla was a hard fought out victory, Atletico scoring 2 goals in the last 10 minutes of the match to see off Sevilla. Atletico were creating chance upon chance in this match, they just couldn’t finish it off, until goals from Diego Costa and Rodriguez eventually seen the dominance paid off. The game against Rayo Vallecano was won before it even started, a stroll in the park for Atletico. Goals from Raul Garcia, Diego Costa and Arda Turan saw Atletico cruising at half time 3-0. Further goals from Tiago and Raul Garcia again seen the final score end in a comfortable 5-0 victory.
The win against Real Sociedad was probably the closest that they’ve came to dropping points, holding on at the end of the game. Goals from David Villa in the first half and Koke in the second half proved enough though for Atletico to edge out this match. They can thank Thibaut Courtois for the win after some terrific goalkeeping in the last 10 minutes or so to keep hold of the slender 2-1 lead.
Diego Simeone was quoted after losing out to Barcelona in the Super Cup saying: “Barca are better than us, Real Madrid are better than us. Their economic strength puts them out of our reach. In a one-off match we can try and match them, but not over a league season.” I’m not so sure that this is true however, from what I’ve seen Atletico are more than capable of causing an upset and splitting the big two at the top of the table.
It was much the same story last season however, Atletico were pushing to split the big two and were sitting comfortably in 2nd position at one point. But tiredness kicked in and Real Madrid eventually pulled it back and edged into 2nd place ahead of Atletico.
Atletico have a number of really quality players though that they’ve managed to keep a hold of and if they can keep David Villa fit all season then who knows, maybe they could split the big two. Thibaut Courtois, Raul Garcia, Arda Turan, Koke, Adrian and Diego Costa are all extremely important players for Atletico and have played together for a good couple of years now. I think they’ve done really well in bringing in David Villa as the replacement for Falcao, the main man from last season.
Atletico Madrid will compete in the Champions League this year as well, and have been drawn against Porto, Zenit St. Petersburg and Austria Vienna. A tough group but I’d expect them to qualify for the last 16 along with Porto. This could also have a bearing on the domestic form as the players will tire from playing in the Champions League midweek to then get back to the fixture in La Liga.
Under Diego Simeone, Atletico have played 93 games, winning 57, drawing 19 and losing 17. In La Liga they have played 63, won 36, drew 14 and lost 13, scoring 105 goals and conceding 52. A total of 122 points won. In terms of percentages, Simeone has won 49.58% of games, drew 23.75% and lost 26.67%. In 2011/12 Atletico won the Europa League, which was nothing but deserved. They then went on to win the Super Cup after Falcao single handedly destroyed Chelsea. Last season they also won the Spanish Copa Del Rey after beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the final. So they have already proved that they can win trophies.
They can certainly mount a challenge this season, and they are without doubt the best team out with Barcelona and Real Madrid. If they can cut out the silly mistakes from last season and stop the needless point dropping then they’re certainly in with a good chance. Next up for Atletico are newly promoted Almeria, which should be another convincing victory. Can they do it? Time will tell.