And so the Madrid derby rolls round again, the match that Real Madrid's Alvaro Arbeloa this week described as the game of the season ... "for them." It was a line offered casually but it was calculated too; Arbeloa's deadpan delivery was designed to make the dismissiveness all the more damaging and it didn't go uncontested. "Arbeloa hasn't watched us much recently," responded Atletico Madrid's captain Gabi, who added: "That was before."
Before, Real Madrid fans held up a banner in the south stand of the Santiago Bernabeu, a mocked-up and mocking classified advert. "Wanted," it declared, "a decent rival for a worthy derby.