El Derbi Madrileño: The battle to claim the title of "Madrid's Big Brother"

The high voltage game is here upon us for the third time this season but this time the stakes are higher than ever for the Madrid giants. The Madrid derby is slowly becoming as big a game as the ‘El Clasico’ between Real and Barcelona and though it is only the third week of La Liga, this game will either raise or destroy the self-esteem of the two teams and might play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the La Liga.

After the euphoria of winning the UEFA Supercup at the start of the season, Real Madrid are suddenly under a lot of pressure from their extremely demanding fans following their 2-1 aggregate defeat over two legs against Atletico Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup and their surprise capitulation to Real Sociedad during La Liga Match-day Two. The club has also received widespread criticism from their fans following the sale of Angel Di Maria and Xabi Alonso, with many feeling that Real have become weaker than the team that had won the Champions League last season. Carlo Ancelotti has not been able to properly integrate summer acquisitions James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos into the team and the supporters might be baying for his blood if it goes wrong for Real tomorrow against their city rivals. One good news, however, for Real is the availability of Cristiano Ronaldo for tomorrow’s encounter.

Atletico Madrid come into this game with slightly higher hopes even though they have not got a very convincing start to the La Liga. Diego Simeone has made the team an extremely difficult unit to play against and he is an expert when it comes to getting 100% out of his players. On paper, Real Madrid have the stronger team but Atletico have shown that they have incredible mental strength, something that Los Blancos have not really shown.

Thus, a fascinating contest is on the cards with both the teams aiming for maximum points from the match.