“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

For Atletico Madrid, manager Diego Simeone and their supporters the early part of the season has been “the best of times”.

Los Colchoneros are the reigning champions of Spain and began the 2014-15 campaign by defeating their local rivals Real Madrid over two legs to win the Spanish Supercopa. After opening their La Liga fixture list with a disappointing draw against local rivals Rayo Vallecano, the Atleti have notched two successive league wins against Eibar and – once again – Real Madrid.

Yesterday’s 2-1 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu showed that Atletico’s recent results against their hated rivals under Diego Simeone are not a fluke.

Prior to the Argentine boss taking over leadership of the club, Atletico had gone 25 matches without a derby day win against Los Blancos. But Simeone galvanized the club and at the end of the 2012-13 season and Los Rojiblancos defeated Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final at the Santiago Bernabeu to break their hex at the Bernabeu.

Just a few months later, the Atleti opened the 2013-14 La Liga season by once again beating Real on their home ground.

Since December 2011, Atletico Madrid have flourished under Simeone’s leadership. The club – which has been considered the “working class” team of Madrid – has embraced the Argentine’s philosophy and become one of the best teams in Europe; and they have done so despite the loss of key personnel during the transfer windows.

This summer was no different. Experts had predicted that Atletico would find it hard to repeat after witnessing the spending sprees of La Liga rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid. Making things worse was that the Atleti had lost their leading goalscorer (Diego Costa), number one goalkeeper (Thibaut Courtois) and a key defender (Filipe Luis); all to Chelsea.

Most clubs would be devastated by such departures. But Simeone and Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo took their time, evaluated the market and brought in reinforcements.

Mario Mandzukic was bought from Bayern Munich, Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad, Miguel Angel Moya from Getafe, Guilherme Siqueira from Granada, Raul Jimenez from Club America and Alessio Cerci from Torino (to name a few). Atletico also did a tremendous job of keeping the spine of the team intact, despite interest from other European clubs.

Club officials and Simeone did outstanding business during the most recent transfer window, but the question became: How quickly would the team come together under Simeone? And how well would they grasp Atletico’s rebellious and aggressive philosophy set for by their no-nonsense Argentinian boss?

The early results have shown that it hasn’t taken long for the new players to buy into Simeone’s idea of taking it “game by game”. Atletico have already claimed a Spanish Supercopa and have seven points after three La Liga matches; following their derby day defeat of Real Madrid.

On the other side of Madrid, it has gone from the best of times, to “the worst of times”.

Real Madrid were at an all-time high at the conclusion of last season. The club had won the Copa del Rey and defeated their local rivals in the Champions League final to win their tenth European Cup.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti had found a way to manage all of the egos in Los Blancos’ locker room and mesh the squad together; and Real were finally able to get over the hump of the Champions League semi-finals and win their much-anticipated “Decima”.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez dove into the transfer market and bought two of the most sought-after names in all of world football: German international Toni Kroos and FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winner, James Rodriguez.

The idea of Kroos and Rodriguez combining with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in Real’s attack had supporters dreaming of a year with the Spanish giants lifting five – or possibly six – trophies at the conclusion of the season.

But there were rumblings all summer of a disruption within the squad. A key contributor to Real’s success last season, Angel Di Maria, was rumored to be on his way out of Madrid.

It would later be learned that the player, his agent and Madrid’s president were at odds; and despite the fact that Ancelotti wanted the attacking midfielder to stay, he was destined to leave the Spanish capital.

Ronaldo and defender Sergio Ramos went to Perez in order to plead with the president to let the Argentina international remain with the club. But Di Maria would eventually be sold to Manchester United for a British transfer record fee of £59.7 million.

Perez would then sign off on the transfers of fan-favorite Diego Lopez and influential midfielder Xabi Alonso. Lopez had been a solid servant to the club for years and Alonso had provided Real with tremendous leadership and world class service since his arrival from Liverpool in 2009.

The holes left by the departures of Di Maria and Alonso have been painfully obvious during the opening of Real’s 2014-15 campaign.

After opening the season by beating Sevilla to win the UEFA Super Cup, Los Blancos fell in the Spanish Supercopa to Atletico Madrid. Real would then bounce back by opening their La Liga fixture list with a 2-0 win over Cordoba.

But a week later, the reigning European champions blew an early two-goal lead in Basque Country before falling to Real Sociedad, 4-2. That defeat was followed by yesterday’s 2-1 derby day loss to Atletico Madrid.

Prior to the derby defeat, speculation began to circulate around the future of Cristiano Ronaldo at the club. The Portuguese international had questioned the club’s decisions to let players go during the summer; and gave an interview to an English publication saying that he “wished” to one day return to Manchester United.

The club and the player quickly squashed any rumors of a disagreement between Ronaldo and president Florentino Perez. But that speculation has only intensified following Real’s slow start to the season.

Right now, Real are suffering through the “worst of times” in the early part of the 2014-15 campaign. They’ve seen the departures of three key members of their squad, lost one piece of silverware to Atletico Madird, then were beaten again by their local rivals at home in the league; and are already six points behind Barcelona in the chase for the La Liga title.

Meanwhile, Atletico are the kings of Madrid – if you go by the recent results and the headlines of the Spanish papers – and are only two points off of the top spot in La Liga.

It is the best of times and it is the worst of times for the two teams in the capital city of Spain.