Atletico Madrid captain Koke insists the players will not be “distracted” by talk of winning the title in La Liga this season.
Los Rojiblancos currently sit atop the league table after collecting 26 points from their opening 11 rounds of matches this campaign.
That is despite last week’s Madrid derby loss to Real Madrid – the first league defeat of the season for Diego Simeone’s side, who had won eight and drawn just two of their opening 10 fixtures.
That has inevitably led to suggestions that Atleti are on course to win their first league title in seven seasons, although the competition is set to be fierce.
Real Sociedad – who have played three games more than them – and Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid – who have played two games more – have the same number of points, while Villarreal and Barcelona are each within six points of the summit.
Koke told an interview with Marca: “You already know our idea. What we talk about in the dressing room will stay there and we will continue with the same idea of going day by day. We have an important game against Elche and we want to win it to stay on top.
“We are having a great season with only one game lost. The team wants to continue the streak. In the derby we had a setback that hurt us a lot because we were going into it with high hopes, but it was not our day.
“There are three points available in each game and we have to continue doing the work that we have been doing and that we are not distracted by anything other than our ‘game by game’ mantra.”
