For Atletico Madrid, we know the best result they can get is to get third place in the table as they do right now and finish the season in this position while they can still think about Real Marid's position and they need five points for it but considering the current performance of both teams I don't think if that's even possible for Atletico Madrid to reach the second position of the table until the end of this season even if they show the same performance we saw against Real Betis.
Atletico Madrid just need to maintain their form and keep their chances in the European zone next season, which seems to be the most realistic target for them at the moment. It's also not important to finish in second place even though it's a nice achievement. But in my opinion, it would be better if Atletico Madrid only focused on good performance instead of hoping to finish second.
This week Atletico Madrid will travel to the Vallecas Stadium, the headquarters of Rayo Vallecano. I think it's a match that will benefit Atletico Madrid because Vallecano is not in the best form at the moment. So far Atletico Madrid are safe in the standings even though they are 6 points away from Sociedad and 9 points from Real Betis.
I know that there are many Atlético fans and I don't blame them, it's a great club, for me one of the best in all of Spain, and even though Real Madrid is not an Unattainable team, I think that here things happen for a reason, Madrid has a wide Advantage over Atlético, just as Barcelona has over Madrid, so in these cases Madrid is focused on Passing Barcelona, but for some reason they have not been able to overcome it, what we could see is that Madrid wants the first place and win the League,Atlético only wants to be in the top 4, if Atlético wanted to win the League, I think things would be different.
I don't agree with the opinion that Barcelona aren't actually strong this season. Yes Real Madrid have been really inconsistent in the league so far but it would be unfair to Barcelona if we overlook their high effort. They lost only twice after all those matches and they didn't draw with their opponents so many times either. While they are the second most scoring team they have conceded only 9 goals in 29 matches in the league. Especially the defensive performance is really insane I think.
Barcelona's only problem is with their playing really bad in Champions League matches. Xavi still can't find a solution to this problem but I believe in them to do better next season there as well.
You are right, just as it is also incongruous that Madrid plays so well in the UCL and not in the League, but I think that now Madrid is very confident in their game and their style and they are starting to add more points, I don't know what it is what actually affects, but I would like to know,maybe Ancelotti has the right answer, but as far as I am concerned, it is better to win the UCL than the League, although in the case of Madrid it would be ideal if they win the UCL and the The League will take it away from Barcelona, because Barcelona took it out of all the championships it could Win, so that's not good either, a team must show that it is the best anywhere.