Atletico Madrid host Villarreal on Sunday evening knowing they can go level on points with Barcelona in second after the Catalans were only able to draw with Getafe on Saturday afternoon.

The defending champions are in good form at the Vicente Calderon having won six of their seven league games this season and have gone through 2014 undefeated in their home league games. They have the second best defensive record in La Liga and have won three league games in a row since losing to Real Sociedad in early November.

Los Rojiblancos will be without Cristian Ansaldi and Mario Suarez but Miranda is fit to play and Diego Simeone faces a tough decision about whether to bring him back in or stick with the extremely talented Gimenez. Gimenez has been excellent alongside fellow Uruguayan, Diego Godin in central defence. At just twenty years old he looks to have a huge future ahead of him but needs games to continue his development.

Villarreal are sixth in the table and come into this game on a run of seven games without loss in all competitions. They have only lost one away game this season with three wins and three draws in the other six.

El Submarino Amarillo have some injury concerns ahead of their trip to Madrid which weren't helped by several of their players coming down with a stomach virus after the game in Cyprus in midweek which saw Villarreal secure their place in the next round of the Europa League. Luciano Vietto, Gerard Moreno and Moi Gomez were struck down with the virus and could join Giovani Dos Santos, Cani and Mateo Musacchio on the sidelines.

Villarreal have some very talented youngsters in their squad and have one of the youngest squads in Spain with just two of the twenty-one players to have played for them in La Liga older than thirty. Moi Gomez (20), Luciano Vietto (21) and Adrian Marin (17) have shown they have big futures and if Marcelinho can keep them at the club Villarreal could be on the verge of returning to the Champions League over the next few seasons.

Atletico will be expected to continue their excellent home form by beating Villarreal but if they want to finish 2014 with no home defeats in the league they will have to earn it as Villarreal are a team on the up and are capable of causing problems for Simeone's side.

Predicted Lineups

Atletico Madrid - Moya; Juanfran, Gimenez, Godin, Siqueira; Koke, Tiago, Gabi, Arda; Mandzukic, Griezmann.

Villarreal - Asenjo; Mario, Gabriel, Victor Ruiz, Costa; Moi Gomez, Bruno, Trigueros, Cheryshev; Uche, Vietto.