Cracks showing but Barça goes top

With two rounds of Liga matches almost completed, the top of the table is already beginning to take on a familiar appearance. Barcelona is looking down on the rest of the pile, as it did from week one through to week 38 last year, and Atlético Madrid occupies the runners-up spot it held for much of 2012-13, just not the period that mattered as Real Madrid straightened out its form in the final stretch.

But the status quo does not tell the entire story. Atlético destroyed visiting Rayo Vallecano 5-0 on Sunday with a couple of habitual reserves on the score sheet, David Villa off it and Diego Costa absolutely everywhere. While the signing of Spain’s all-time leading scorer has been rightly lauded as a coup — Villa was so cheap he is practically a loan signing — and having proved he did not leave his touch on Barcelona’s bench with a cracking goal against his old side midweek, Costa has become the wild-eyed focal point of Diego Simeone’s side.

“We don’t know how to play any other way,” said the Argentinean coach after Costa led a rampage that Rayo simply couldn’t stem. Raúl García and Tiago, not automatic first teamers, showed that Atlético has a solid squad with fine performances and any team that can bring Adrián, Leo Baptistão and Koke off the bench will be just fine; whether Atlético can break the duopoly of Real Madrid and Barcelona is a question that was largely answered last year — yes.

But can it sustain that challenge for a few precious weeks more this season? It certainly has the ability and if lucky with injuries, anything is possible.

Sevilla coach Unai Emery: “They had more chances but we had the ball”

Barcelona, by contrast, was made to suffer against Málaga in the absence of Leo Messi, who was not risked by Gerardo Martino after tweaking a muscle during the Supercup first leg at Atlético. It is a stark contrast from last season, when Barça wheeled out its talisman regardless of his state of fitness, notably against PSG in the Champions League when the Argentina captain indeed turned the game for his side.

But thus far this season Messi has largely been a spectator and Barcelona, after thumping a woeful Levante side 7-0 on the opening day, has not looked like it could pass its way past all of the training cones.

Thus far, Martino has resisted the temptation to hurl summer signing Neymar into the fray, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that Barça’s tiki-taka stylings no longer generate quiet submission in their opponents.

Málaga, which has been significantly weakened over the summer, was well-organized if uninspiring, but still managed to hold Barcelona at bay despite the visitor enjoying 70-percent possession, 12 shots on goal and 11 corners.

Gerardo Martino is still unwilling to let Neymar loose in the absence of Leo Messi

Adriano provided a wonder strike to separate the sides but Martino must be thinking the same thing as Málaga coach Bernd Schuster said of his own team: “If you have three chances, you have to make one of them count.”

Elsewhere, Elche scored its first point of the campaign at home to Real Sociedad while Levante’s 0-0 showing against a toothless Sevilla suggested the Valencia-based club will challenge Osasuna this season for the wooden spoon in terms of goals scored. “They had more chances but we had the ball,” noted Sevilla coach Unai Emery.

But as Barcelona showed, that isn’t much use unless you put it in the net.