Believe it or not – Torres and Falcao

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Believe it or not, Chelsea striker Fernando Torres scored one more goal from open play in November than Atletico’s Falcao.

For all the praise heading Falcao’s way in recent months, it is interesting to see that throughout November, Chelsea’s much maligned Fernando Torres scored the same amount of goals of him – namely one.

Falcao’s only effort was a penalty in the 4-0 dismantling of Sevilla, whilst Torres’ came via a hugely fortunate deflection against Shakhtar, however he does therefore have one more goal in open play than the Colombian, the narrowest of margins and shortest of straws for Torres to cling to.

Atletico’s loss to Real Madrid on Saturday saw their neighbours close to five points behind them again, and with their talismanic striker going through a dry spell, could they be overtaken soon?

Saturday night’s Madrid derby was the final match of an absorbing day’s football in England and around Europe.

In the end, it was a pretty dull affair, with only the troublemaking antics of Diego Costa, and the sheer brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo creating interest on the pitch. The game was of great importance though, as the first Madrid derby for many years where Atletico started the game in such a dominant league position over their neighbours.

Whilst these matches used to be marked by Madrid fan’s banners requesting a decent rival to play against, there was no such cockiness apparent on Saturday, as Atletico starting eight points ahead of Real.

That eight point lead was cut to five on Saturday though, and with Falcao going through his first poor run of the season, could Real Madrid overtake them before the winter break in Spain?

Atletico managed to largely retain their form without Falcao, but have lost two matches recently, in a league where any dropped points can see title aspirations dented significantly.

Despite picking up 34 points from a possible 42 this season, Atletico are closer to Real in third than Barcelona in first, and head to play the league leaders in a couple of weeks, in a match where Real will fancy closing the gap further.

With questions overs Falcao’s future likely to continue as long as Torres fails to find form – so likely to continue indefinitely – Atletico might have a difficult January on a number of fronts. Most importantly for them is that Falcao finds his goalscoring touch in the league as soon as possible, with Real Madrid chasing hard behind them.