That is quite an early judgment call here. I am with you that they are too hectic, too inconsistent, but I do think that Atletico Madrid is a team that can improve their game over time within the season. The more there is at stake for them, the better they can get. They have had seasons like that in the past. Since they can play quite a unique strategy, it is never a please to play against them. They are not as strong as they used to be when they frequently made it into the semifinals of the Champions League, but assuming they have no chance to win anything, I am not so sure about that. Inter is my favorite when Atletico faces them, but it is still quite a high level encounter.
Atletico is now 7 points behind Real and Girona, and this is too much for Atletico to hope for anything in La Liga. They were able to equal Barcelona on points and even beat them on goal difference (this once again indicates Barcelona’s poor attack), but it seems to me that the main struggle in the remaining matches will be with Barcelona for third and fourth place.
I don't think it's too much to expect more of Atletico or Barcelona's rivalry because after all at the moment it's 7 points difference but with Girona's status now although it's very good but the situation is still not safe actually so when talking about opportunities with a very long time because we are only in the middle of the season actually the chance is still very much there in this case.
The performance difference that Atletico is showing is also very good because after all if we compare their current performance with last season we definitely know what to say because Atletico is playing more improved or better than before.
We just have to wait about what will happen in the middle of the season until the end of the season and I'm sure the competition will be more interesting by involving several clubs not just 2 clubs like now.