Atletico CAN repeat history and win LaLiga six years on from their title triumph

It's 2013 all over again at Atletico Madrid. They have a scorned former Barcelona forward in their ranks out to make Barca sorry they ever got rid of him; their manager is repeating the 'one game at a time' mantra every time he is asked about the team's title chances; and everyone is beginning to suspect they can topple Real Madrid and Barcelona.

For David Villa read Luis Suarez. Just as Villa left Barcelona for Atletico in 2013 so Suarez has made the same journey seven years later.

The big difference is that Villa left, in part, because there was a lack of chemistry between him and Lionel Messi. Suarez was told to pack his bags against Messi's best wishes but for Atletico it's all the same – just as back in 2013 they have gained a goal machine of the highest pedigree. He already has five for the season.

But this title charge is not reliant on one man, far from it. Joao Felix, Yannick Carrasco, Marcos Llorente and Koke are all added reasons why this could be Atletico's year.

With seven goals so far this season Felix is well on course to eclipse last year's underwhelming first season at the club and he looks a completely different player alongside Suarez.

Gone is the sulking teenager who seemed to be deliberately turning a deaf ear to Diego Simeone's instructions telling him to move wide in a game against Granada last season.

There seemed little love lost at times between Simeone and Felix but now – just as he did with Antoine Griezmann – Simeone seems to be fashioning a player to suit Atletico's needs and he is not afraid to alter the way his team plays either to meet the record signing from Benfica half way.

'Luis needs people near him so he can play in areas where he can hurt teams and we are working on ways to do that,' Simeone said of Suarez recently, but he knows the fact that Atletico are no longer strung out looking to defend deep and then launch counter attacks also helps the 21-year-old Portugal international Felix.

And if they do have to play on the break then boy can Carrasco do that! His brilliantly taken goal last week punished a rare error from Marc-Andre ter Stegen and helped put Atletico nine points clear of Barcelona.

Carrasco's story is remarkable. He scored the goal in 2016 that brought Atletico Madrid level in the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Milan.

There were just 11 minutes left when he powered in front of Lucas Vazquez at the back post to convert Juanfran Torres' cross and cancel out Sergio Ramos' opener.

Despite being one of the stars of that final he moved to the Chinese Super League at the start of 2018 to play for Dalian Yifang in what seemed like an odd move for such a young and talented player.

Football Leaks later claimed that when Atletico bought 80 per cent of Carrasco's rights from Monaco for £15million in 2015, it was pre-agreed he would be sold after two seasons.

Last January he returned for a second spell under Simeone, shooting down the suggestion he had taken a sort of footballing sabbatical.

Carrasco told El Pais in March 2020: 'People are wrong, they say that playing in China is easy because they don't see the championship. I was running 10 to 12 kilometres per game.

'I had to play well to continue in the Belgian team and be able to return to Europe. I did not go there on holiday.'

His last coach in China was Rafa Benitez and his influence along with the Belgian international just growing up on and off the pitch has given Simeone back a far more complete player.

Not only did he cleverly flick the ball between the legs of Ter Stegen and then find the back of the empty net from distance to win the game against Barca, he was also the key man in Simeone's tactical plan last weekend.

The Atletico coach had chosen to defend with a back-five when his team did not have the ball and it was Carrasco who was given the job of dropping back into a left wing-back role to mark Barcelona's Ousmane Dembele.

Carrasco's pace is not the only frightening thing about this Atletico side.

Zinedine Zidane decided that he did not want holding midfielder Llorente at Real Madrid.

Simeone decided that Llorente should not even be in holding-midfield. He transformed him into an attacking force and Llorente is now in the Spain squad.

So is Koke - Koke Resurrecion to give him his fuller and now apt name given he has risen to the top of the passing stats once more.

The Atletico captain had been dropped by his country after several seasons of below-par performances that owed more to him filling in wide or deep than anything else.

This season Simeone has made room for him centrally and further forward and he is picking holes in opposing defences with laser precision passes that have everyone rolling back the years.

And he's not the only one going back to the future.

Atletico have a former Barca forward scoring goals and Simeone wheeling out the old 'one game at a time' narrative every second or third question he is asked.

No wonder there is the distinct feeling that this side can do what the 2013-14 side did, and win LaLiga.