La Liga 2016-17: Barcelona 1-1 Atletico Madrid - 5 talking points

#5 Advantage Real Madrid, at this point

The draw played perfectly into the hands of Real Madrid

Barcelona will be relieved that their record is safe. Real drew to Villarreal in the kickoff prior to this match thereby keeping the streak of winning consecutive matches in La Liga at 16 – tied with Pep Guardiola’s record set in 2010-11. It also landed both Barca and Atleti to close the gap down to Real, should either team have won.

Neither capitalised on the opportunity as for now Los Blancos are ahead of the pack at this moment. Barcelona- Atletico Madrid games generally result in gritty matches and Real will have tougher tests but this season maintains its intrigue with a number of important questions.

Is Zinedine Zidane lucky or have the wins been purely on tactical merit? Will Barcelona come up with the perfect plan B? Will Simeone guide his team to the summit once more? Or will another team rise up and take the crown in what promises to be one of the most intriguing La Liga season in years.