La Liga betting guide: Bullish Barcelona set to eat into Real Madrid lead

After Villarreal and Sevilla threatened to gatecrash the customary Barcelona and Madrid domination earlier this season, normal order has been restored in Spain.

Atletico Madrid may have surprisingly fallen by the wayside of late with a string of bizarre defeats, however fierce rivals Real and Barca are still pulling their weight.

Diego Simeone’s outfit have looked lacklustre recently with their once indomitable defence leaking goals left, right and centre, shorn of Filipe Luis and keeper Jan Oblak.

They have lost four of their last seven games to Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Real and Villarreal with goal poacher Antoine Griezmann barren in the league since October 2nd.

Real have had to do without attacking whirlwind Gareth Bale themselves since late November, but they have found ways to win even when their own backline has faltered.

Cristiano Ronaldo has tried his best to put them on his shoulders again, Sergio Ramos’ knack of scoring late winners also securing three crucial points against Barca and Deportivo La Coruna that could have gone begging.

Barcelona lost Jeremy Mathieu to a muscle injury in late October and three successive league draws, the last at home to Real, suggested they could be in for a tough 2017.

The 3-0 humbling of Osasuna last time out, though, with Lionel Messi two goals to the good and Luis Suarez back scoring means they carry more threat into easier fixtures against Espanyol, Las Palmas, Eibar and Real Betis before the visit of Atletico Bilbao in early February.

Real are favourites at 4/9 with most bookmakers, thanks to their six-point lead and superior goal difference.

Nevertheless Barcelona at 7/4 are well worth a punt, especially with Andres Iniesta back from injury pulling the strings.

Outside of those two, Atletico Madrid are sure to rebound and claim a top-four finish with Villarreal very tempting at 3/1 to round out the top four at Sevilla’s expense.

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