Next Sunday, 19th of October 2014, the current Spanish champions, Atlético Madrid, will take on a fairly motivated Espanyol side at Vicente Calderón for round eight of the Liga BBVA, on a match of the utmost importance for Los Colchoneros, who were defeated for the first time this season on the past round at Mestalla.

It is fair to say that this season‘s Atlético Madrid is still miles away from the team that won the Spanish league and reached the UEFA Champions League final. Atlético’s performances have been fairly inconsistent so far, as the team managed to put up a remarkable display against Juventus in the middle of the week (imposing the first defeat of the season to the Vecchia Signora) after a disappointing act on the match with Valencia during the weekend, that cost the first defeat of the season to the Madrid team.

Diego Simeone’s absence from the dugout may be one of the reasons for the team’s instability, although, and since he was already commanding his team at Mestalla, one cannot direct all of the team’s problems this season to the period El Cholo was suspended.

Atlético will have a demanding task next Sunday against Espanyol and they cannot allow any more slipups since they are already five points behind the league leaders, Barcelona.

For the match against the Catalan team, Simeone will not be able to rely on the contribution of the versatile Italian player Alessio Cerci, since he is currently suspended, and he is not yet certain if the hardworking Uruguayan centre back Godin will recover from his injury in time for the clash.

As for Espanyol, the Catalan team is, in fact, enjoying a very positive moment as they remain undefeated after their last four matches. After a bumpy start at La Liga, with two defeats in three matches, Sergio González’s boys managed to bounce back and have granted two wins in their last three matches. Last round, Espanyol defeated Real Sociedad at Cornella El-Prat, on a match during which Los Periquitos were far superior to the Basque team and, therefore, they completely deserved the win.

For the next Sunday’s match, Sergio González will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Héctor Moreno, who remains sidelined due to injury.

Despite last round’s defeat, Atlético Madrid are firm favourites to win next weekend’s match, though and if we have in mind what happened last season when Espanyol visited Vicente Calderón, the home side will need to work a lot to snatch the three points.

Atlético Madrid

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - LWWWD

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WDWDL

Possible Line-ups

Atlético Madrid (4-4-1-1) - Moya - Juanfran - Miranda - Godín - Ansaldi - Tiago - Gabi - Koke - Griezmann - Raul Garcia - Mandzukic

Espanyol (4-4-2) -  Casilla - López- Colotto - González - Fuentes - Sánchez - Cañas - Vázquez - Álvarez- Sergio Garcia - Caicedo

Prediction

Atlético Madrid 2 Espanyol 1