This La Liga season has been somewhat odd. With Barcelona in a major crisis, the top four spots in the league have some new names. The first spot, however, is tightly held by Real Madrid, who are on a tear this season. Closely behind Real Madrid are their city rivals, Atletico Madrid. The squad led by Cholo Simeone slowed down lately but is still hoping to retain the La Liga title. As the moment of the El Madrileno approaches, here are two bold predictions for the huge derby coming up on Sunday.

Madrid derby predictions 

Marcos Llorente will be exposed on the left flank versus Vinicius Jr 

Unfortunately for Atletico fans, the squad has been decimated by injuries. Three starting-caliber defenders in Stefan Savic, Kieran Trippier, and Sime Vrsaljko are all out of the lineup. Additionally, star forward Luis Suarez is presumed to be out, but as AS reports, he will be a last-minute decision. This spells trouble for current La Liga champions, as the two fullbacks that are out are both right-backs, a flank that most of Real Madrid's attacking prowess comes from.

Of course, that is where Vinicius Jr operates, and he has just been on a tear lately. The Brazilian has been heavily criticized since coming to Madrid, mostly due to his lack of finishing. Unfortunately for all other teams in La Liga, he has fixed that. Right now, Vini has 12 goals in 22 appearances for the Los Blancos. Some of these goals, like the screamer against Sevilla a couple of weeks back, have been instrumental in the amazing season the 13-time Champions League winners have had.

As both primary right-backs are out for Atleti, Simeone will probably go for Marcos Llorente, and what a game this will be for the Spanish midfielder. He transferred to Atletico in 2019, as the product of Real Madrid's school of football. Under Simeone, he completely exploded and he is one of the most complete midfielders in the world. In the upcoming derby that might sway the title race, he will not be in the midfield.

Due to his original position not being right-back, and due to the fact that Vini is on a complete tear, Llorente will simply be exposed on the wing. He does not have the pace, nor the complete defensive prowess to deal with the Brazilian winger in this form. Unfortunately for Atleti and their hopes of retaining the La Liga title, Llorente cannot be the one who contains Vinicius. What is even worse, he will be sorely missed in the midfield, where Atletico needs to find a way to neutralize the legendary Kroos-Modric-Casemiro midfield that won Madrid three out of the last four Champions Leagues.

The La Liga title chase will be over by the end of this game 

Let's be realistic for a moment – the only two contenders left in this title race are Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. Barcelona, even with the Xavi boost, is still far behind even Champions League football, let alone a title race. Other teams are solid, but time has shown us that Sevilla, Real Sociedad, and similar teams simply cannot cope with the intensity of a full title race. They will be happy with Champions League spots at the end, and it will be the Madrid rivals that take the top two spots.

The only chance for Atletico Madrid to win this match is for Real Madrid to show serious fatigue. It can be argued that there is a high possibility for this, as Los Merengues have played some highly intense games in the last couple of weeks. Back to back huge games against rivals Sevilla and Socided, broken off by mid-week bouts versus Athletic Bilbao and Inter Milan. However, with all the injury setbacks, it just does not look like Atleti will be such a threat to the current La Liga leaders.

Looking at the table right now, Real Madrid has a ten-point lead over Atletico, and an eight-point lead over Sevilla, which is currently second in the standings. With a win, Madrid would be 13 points up Atleti (Atletico does have one more game to play) and that lead is incredibly hard to lose, especially considering the form of Real Madrid right now. Both teams have, more-or-less, the same circumstances, as they both progressed to the Champions League knock-outs, so unless something bad happens for the Royal club, this should be over by the final whistle on Sunday evening.

This is not to say that a true, tense title race is impossible. With the number of rotations Carlo Ancelotti simply refuses to do, the form could severely drop off and all of the above-mentioned teams could have serious cases for the La Liga title. Of course, Real Madrid could also lose this derby, which would give Sevilla a chance to come even closer and Atletico to be just seven points behind with an additional game still to be played. Still, a win right here for Real Madrid would give them, more-or-less, one hand on the title.