La Liga Hangover: Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid Mean Business

It had ended with the ball flying chaotically from end to end and with everyone exhausted, but more than anything, it had ended with him.

Kevin Gameiro had just slipped the ball under Diego Alves when Diego Simeone erupted on the touchline, thrusting his arms into the air and his head back, palms open as he roared into the Valencian sky. No one had ever looked more like Vincent Chase's Pablo Escobar from Entourage, and in this case, that's a good thing. 

As Atletico Madrid sealed their 2-0 victory over Valencia on Sunday, we got the unadulterated version of Simeone, and that's the best kind. When the Argentinian completely lets go, throwing aside the obligation many in his position feel for a certain restraint, all feels right in the world of Atletico. Ditto when the mantra follows. 

"When the final whistle went, I got all of the players together and told them that our strength is what we do as a group," he said in Sunday's post-match press conference. "If the players understand that the team always comes first, that is what matters."

One of the ways in which Simeone is unique is that he doesn't talk the way he acts.

For most managers, their demeanour behind the microphone is an extension of that from the touchline, but the Atletico boss isn't most managers. His skill is for compartmentalising, swapping ferocity for calculation in a manner that must unnerve rivals. "What frightens us most in a madman," the French poet Anatole France once said, "is his sane conversation."

Simeone's isn't a madman by that definition, but you get the point. After a difficult period during the early weeks of the season when they slumped to consecutive stalemates with Alaves and Leganes, when Antoine Griezmann uttered those words on relegation and when Simeone curiously negotiated a reduction in his contract, he and Atletico now look and sound right again. 

Sunday's victory over Valencia at Mestalla took them top of the table and was emphatic, even if it was a little tense at the end. Atleti dominated the ball in a way they rarely do, slicing the hosts open with a certainty in their method of attack.

In total, they took 17 shots on goal, 10 of them on target, per WhoScored.com. Alves saved eight of them, including two quite incredibly from the penalty spot, but that he did only served to highlight that this was a hammering in every way but on the scoreboard. 

This had been a huge 12 days for Atletico. Heading into an international break, they were facing clashes with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, a tricky home fixture with Deportivo La Coruna and a trip to Mestalla. For a team that entered such a stretch surrounded by a subdued vibe and uncomfortable questions, 10 points from 12 is some return. 

It's not just the points, though. Since those opening draws that looked damaging at the time, the men from the Vicente Calderon have been unshackled. Turning away from an overly conservative four-man midfield, Simeone has gone for added dynamism, utilising the full extent of the most talented squad he's ever had. 

On Sunday, Koke went into the central pivot, and Angel Correa occupied one of the flanks, feeding Griezmann and Gameiro. In the second half, Simeone called upon Yannick Carrasco and Fernando Torres, both of whom made an immediate impact in creating Griezmann's opener. The Argentinian still had Nicolas Gaitan up his sleeve, too, the lot of them giving Atletico variations and ways to manipulate games. 

"Carrasco, Correa, Griezmann, Torres, Gaitan… It's the players who are coming in and out of the side who are making the difference," said Simeone. 

If Atletico getting slicker with the ball is ominous, equally so is that they're still getting better without it. Sunday's clean sheet was their seventh in nine games this season, and they've conceded just twice in that time. It's their best start defensively for two decades, and it doesn't seem to matter who's available. 

Against Valencia, Atleti were without both Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez, the pair who anchored the defence for the entirety of last season. Stefan Savic, who's started strongly this term, was joined by the 20-year-old Lucas Hernandez. Valencia would have liked their chances, but it made no difference, just as it didn't when Atleti were without Godin and Gimenez against Bayern and Barcelona, respectively, in last season's Champions League. 

It's this which is easily overlooked when considering Atletico's threat. Though Simeone's men often make harder work of things than they could, no one is better equipped to ride out the rough patches than them. In a system in which the parts are so interchangeable, in which the identity remains even if usual faces don't, injuries matter less than they do for others, and rotation is not so delicate. 

Their rivals might be envious of that. As Atleti stormed to the top of the league table on Sunday, Real Madrid and Barcelona took turns in showing that some absences are harder to overcome. For Real, things evidently get messy when Casemiro and Luka Modric are removed; for Barcelona, trouble has timed itself neatly with Andres Iniesta's intermittent rests. 

The picture, then, has changed a little. When Atletico entered this season, it was recognised by most that though their squad was stacked, this looked like a year in which their rebellion against the league's realities would be more difficult than in others. Real and Barcelona looked uncharacteristically settled simultaneously, poised for squash-everything campaigns with Atleti approaching what felt like the end of a cycle. 

Now, though, it's as though Atletico's brief glimpse of the end has stirred something within them, giving them a notional space to fight back against. They're suddenly faster and sharper while still being as stingy as hell, and Simeone is back to letting it all out on the touchline. All's well again in the world of Atletico.  

Not Forgotten Amid the Hangover

• It might have only been a simple play on words, but Mundo Deportivo's cover on Monday summed it up: "Malaidos." In a game of more extremes than the corresponding fixture last season—and that one took some beating—Barcelona not so much shot themselves in the foot but amputated the whole thing in a 4-3 defeat to Celta Vigo at Balaidos. Celta were immensely impressive in pressing high, but the mistakes committed by Luis Enrique's men were quite bizarre, none more so than when Marc-Andre ter Stegen kicked a ball into the face of Pablo Hernandez and saw it ricochet into his own net for the winner. 

• Enrique probably went a touch too far with his rotations again on Sunday, but Lluis Mascaro's assessment at Sport that the manager who's won eight of the 10 trophies he's contested has become a "crazy professor" ranks up there among the most hysterical reactions of all time.  

• Gerard Pique was somehow Barcelona's best defender and best forward at the same time against Celta. His brace means he has more league goals than Cristiano Ronaldo this season. 

• Eibar didn't wear yellow, but it didn't matter. For the fourth straight game, Real Madrid played with little fluency and a troubling fragility at the back, falling to a 1-1 draw at home with Eibar. Manager Zinedine Zidane insisted his club weren't in a crisis but didn't exactly hold back for the press in his assessment of his team's form: "We can't carry on like this."

• So much for La Liga being uncompetitive. Between them, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico have dropped 20 points in seven rounds this season—eight more than the combined total of the Premier League's top three.  

• Malaga vs. Athletic Bilbao: What a finish.  

• Another week, another bunch of late winners and equalisers. Wissam Ben Yedder went first, pinching the points for Sevilla against Alaves; David Garcia went next for Las Palmas; Ryan Babel went after him for Deportivo La Coruna. Quite a bit of fun, this league, eh?