Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol Betting Tips

Diego Simeone’s side moved above their city rivals and up to 2nd in the division last weekend when they won 1-0 at Real Betis, while Los Blancos were humbled at home in El Clasico. With a decent run of fixtures heading into the new year it could turn out to be Atleti who are able to put the most pressure on Barcelona, who are 4 points clear at the top.

Atletico look to be pretty close to where they were at during their title winning campaign. Defensively they are very strong and have kept 4 consecutive clean sheets coming into this game, winning the last 3. They are unbeaten in 9 matches in all competitions and should be too strong for Espanyol here, the only question is likely to be what the margin of victory is.

Although Atletico don’t tend to win big like their two main rivals at the top do, they should be able to put at least a couple of goals past an Espanyol side that has the joint worst defensive record in the league this season. They created plenty of chances at Betis last weekend and should have won by more than 1 goal.

It’s difficult to know what to make of Espanyol at the moment. They are safely in mid-table where they finished last season but results and performances have been mixed. They beat bottom club Malaga at home last time out but had only taken 1 point from their previous 3 games, all against sides in mid-table or lower.

They’ve conceded twice or more in 5 of their 6 away games so far and this will be the toughest of the bunch so certainly Atletico look good value at 3/4 to win this game by 2 or more goals.

Home fans turn up almost in expectation of a clean sheet at the Vicente Calderon and it is hard to see Espanyol breaching an Atletico defence that is yet to concede in November and has only conceded 3 times in their last 9 matches.

This should be a very routine home win and you can back Atletico to win 2-0 at 4/1.