We're almost halfway through this exciting Spanish League season, and all of a sudden Atletico Madrid has taken over first place in the La Liga standings.

Atletico Madrid is now 13-2-3 with 41 points having won seven of their last eight games. Antoine Griezmann leads Atletico with nine goals this season while Koke has three assists. Atletico's rise shouldn't be a big shocker at all considering they did just win the league title two years ago. The biggest reason Atletico is in first place is because of their defense. They have allowed the fewest goals against this season, just eight.

Goalkeeper Jan Oblak has been fantastic this year in net. Not once this entire season has Atletico allowed more than two goals in a game. Atletico has also defended home field brilliantly thus far having just one defeat at the Vicente Calderón.

As for Barcelona, they've been a little inconsistent lately. The defending champions have drawn a tie in three of the last four games. Barcelona hasn't lost a single game since Week 7 against Sevilla, so this little funk shouldn't cost them a league title. Luis Suarez leads the team with 15 goals while Neymar has 14 of his own. Lionel Messi has found the net six times this La Liga season, and it appears as if he has fully recovered from his leg injury.

It should also be mentioned that although Barcelona is two points behind in the standings, they have played one less game. That's a result of playing in the Club World Cup. As long as Barcelona continues to not lose games, they will be fine.

Let's also not forget about Real Madrid. Real Madrid certainly isn't off to the hot start that we are used to seeing, and head coach Rafael Benítez has been fired. Fans are still feeling the horrors of that 4-0 loss at the hands of Barcelona back in Week 12, which came at home. Real Madrid drew a tie against Valencia in their last game to give them 39 points, good enough for third place in la Liga.

Cristiano Ronaldo has a team-leading 14 goals this season, and he's taking more shots than ever before. Some fans think he's taking too many shots instead of slowly setting up an offensive attack. It will be very interesting to see if Real Madrid can rebound with a new manager in place. For what it's worth, Real Madrid has scored the most goals in the league this year with 47, although 10 of those did come in one game against Rayo.

A lot of pressure is now on Atletico to finish the deal. Barcelona should be their only true test considering Real Madrid is going in a different managerial direction. Barcelona already defeated Atletico back in Week 3, and they collide once again this year in Week 22 on Jan. 31. That game will be in Barcelona.

The last club to win La Liga other than Atletico, Real Madrid or Barcelona was Valencia in 2004.

La Liga Standings, Top 5 Teams

1. Atletico Madrid: 13-2-3, 41 points

2. Barcelona: 12-3-2, 39 points

3. Real Madrid: 11-4-3, 37 points

4. Villarreal: 11-3-4, 36 points

5. Celta Vigo: 9-4-5, 31 points

 Follow Damon Salvadore on Twitter @DamonSalvadore1