Another tight title race

Upon the full-time whistle that brought the 2020-21 season to a close, Diego Simeone simply burst out laughing on the sidelines at Valladolid. The Atletico Madrid boss had just won his second La Liga title and the club’s first since 2014. “I can’t stop laughing for some reason,” he told reporters after the game.

Atleti have always thrived under their underdog status, but last campaign was different. They led the league from the off and by the halfway point had 50 points – a double-digit points lead over their rivals.

Perhaps inevitably, their form dipped – collecting17 points from their following 13 games – and the advantage was slowly whittled away by Real Madrid and Barcelona, who hit their strides in the second half of the campaign. Sevilla, who finished on a club-record points tally of 77, joined them in a four-way title race.