“Keep calm,” Zinedine Zidane said, but back in Madrid it was hot and it was late and it wasn’t easy to sleep. In Torrejón, out of the city to the north-east, the presses were rolling on and the lorries were rolling out, a special 4am edition meaning those that had slept awoke to the news from across the Atlantic. It was late July and Real Madrid had just shipped seven against Atlético in New York. “3-7!” shouted the cover of Marca in shock. “One great team and one team in ruins,” judged the front of AS. “We treated it like a friendly and they didn’t,” Sergio Ramos insisted but still he was “pissed off” and the verdicts were in. “Historic humiliation.” “A scandalous, painful battering of a pitiful Madrid.” “A rag doll thrown about by a hurricane.”

Karim Benzema hits winner as Real turn over toothless Atlético in Madrid derby Read more

The headlines were fierce then and funny now, a thesaurus throwing up “embarrassing”, “shameful”, “disgraceful”, “ridiculed”. This was a “disaster”, a “bath for the ages” - a real whitewash, in other words. It had been “bloody”, a “massacre”; Atlético had “steamrollered” a Madrid team “full of holes, letting in water everywhere,” a side with “no pace, no desire, no ideas”, “no football, no fight, and no plan” No matter that it was pre-season, Atlético were the future, Madrid the past; Diego Simeone had taught Zidane a lesson. “Atlético rule the capital: there will be a

Before and After this.” The next day, time to digest it, one cover declared “Red alert!” Another saw “black clouds gather.” There would be “deep scars” and “dramatic consequences”. Everything must go!

But if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, you’ll be Zidane, my son. Asked in New York what he was going to do, Madrid’s manager replied: “Carry on.” He was going to “keep calm”; he had lost this derby, but there would be more and they would matter. “I’m certain I have a team that will compete and that’s that,” he said. “We’re going to see good things. Our season will be good, I’m convinced.”

Six months on and 5,768km east, Madrid beat Atlético 1-0. Saturday was the third time they had met since New York - they drew 0-0 at the Metropolitano and Madrid won the Super Cup in Jeddah - and the first time Atlético had lost in the league at the Bernabéu for seven years. It also left Madrid top, 13 points ahead of their neighbours, who are out of the Cup too, defeated by third tier Cultural Leonesa. The Bernabéu sang for Simeone to stay, giggles going round the ground. Under pressure, for the first time there are doubts he will. Worse, there are even doubts he should.

As for Zidane, there are none, not now. His position may never have been stronger – and, no, maybe not even after he won his first European Cup, or his second, completing a double with the league, or his third. Even that very morning, in the team’s Kiev hotel, there were those on the inside - high up on the inside - openly questioning him. In the summer, some were again. All the way to the autumn, in fact. No more.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest For the first time, Diego Simeone is under pressure at Atlético. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

Zidane had walked away; he had then walked back in because they needed him, not least politically. He oversaw a three-month crossing of the desert, 11 dead matches, season over already. He came in return for promises and there would be “changes”, he said. But they were yet to be seen in the US and beyond. Defeated by PSG and held by Bruges, they suffered their worst Champions League start, and then they were defeated in Mallorca in October. They went to Istanbul needing to win; Zidane went needing it even more. Stories of the sack were not simply pulled from the air, the ghost of Mourinho emerging once more.

They have gone now. Madrid have played 21 games since Mallorca, winning 16, and losing none, going top. They’ve racked up 33 of the last 39 points in the league and for the first time in five years, they reached February with a chance of winning all three trophies. Domestically, at least, that feels as much a probability as a possibility.

Everything has changed, except the players. New York might have felt like the death knell for many - the classic polls pleaded for players to be put out of their misery - and may have made Paul Pogba’s arrival “inevitable” (and yes, one paper really did say that). But Pogba didn’t come, Gareth Bale didn’t go, Madrid backing down on the deal at the last minute, and of the players who beat Atlético on Saturday only one wasn’t there last season.

Ferland Mendy’s contribution has been significant, it is true. The new left-back whose team-mates’ secret Santa gave him a brick at Christmas, Madrid have conceded only three goals in 1,421 minutes in which he has been on the pitch. Equally, while he was there last season, Fede Valverde’s emergence as a regular has been significant, AS describing him as the “discovery of the century.” That’s an exaggeration – have they never heard of Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Diego Cervero, let alone Richard III in

a car park? – but he has infused life into everyone around him. At times, in fact, it’s tempting to see the revival as starting with him, the midfield alive again. With Valverde on the pitch, Madrid’s aggregate score this season is 42-6; without him, it is 22-17. If the personnel hasn’t changed much, the personality has, and he is a major part of that.

Beneath the surface, a shift was underway, which New York may have accelerated, even if it wasn’t immediately apparent. One illustration: Casemiro reacted by cutting short his holiday, leaving his family heading to Disneyland alone, and headed to Valdebebas a week early. There has been a culture shift. While everyone looked to Europe, Florentino Pérez telling one coach that was all that mattered, Zidane continually talked about the importance of the league. That, he repeated, is the true measure of a team and it was not opportunism; rather, it was something he insisted upon when Barcelona won it. It is the league that speaks to consistency, sacrifice, daily work. A man with enough authority that he doesn’t need to impose it, Zidane’s message has reached the players. He has recovered footballers whose Madrid careers, frankly, seemed finished - Isco is the clearest example – engaging everyone.

LaLigaTV 🇬🇧 (@LaLigaTV) 📺 @realmadriden won the Madrid derby thanks to @Benzema's second half strike. 🔥



Watch the whole 90 minutes from #RealMadridAtleti tonight at 11pm on #LaLigaTV! 👉 https://t.co/cDhRrTF9h5 pic.twitter.com/d4nflYrwX0

There is a seriousness about Madrid this season that means that while they may not always sparkle, there’s a sense of invulnerability about them right now. Variety, too. They have played four-four-two, five in midfield, a man behind the forwards, three across the front. One thing that doesn’t change, though, is that level of concentration and competitiveness, the physical condition too. Most of the time, they have been without Eden Hazard, who has been injured. Yet in his absence there has been a growing feeling that while they are not getting many goals, they will always find a way to get enough, the defence leading the line.

At Valladolid last weekend, Nacho Fernández headed in the only goal, Zidane talking afterwards about the significance of set plays. The week before, against Sevilla, Casemiro scored both in a 2-1 win. At Getafe, Raphaël Varane scored two from set plays before Modric’s last minute third. Before that there were two 0-0s. And before that a 95th minute goal from Karim Benzema to draw 1-1 at Valencia, with Thibaut Courtois up for a corner. A fortnight before that, they won 2-1 at Alavés with goals from Dani Carvajal and Sergio Ramos. “We were very serious, very compact defensively,” Zidane said in Valladolid. “If we’re strong defensively, we feel we’ll get chances to win.”

And, boy, are they strong defensively. Madrid have let in only 13 goals after 22 games – their best ever figure at this stage of the season. After a difficult start, behind them Courtois has emerged as perhaps the best goalkeeper in Spain.

After Saturday’s derby, Marca called Madrid a team of “steel,” a “block of granite”, and something of that was expressed by two gigantic standing ovations handed out by the Bernabéu. Neither was for a piece of skill, although there was a big roar for Isco’s feet in the first half; nor were they for a great goal or superb save. Instead, they stood for Caravajal and Valverde when they went chasing lost causes like their lives depended on it. Those were runs that symbolise this side, Zidane agreed. “What we have to do is what we’re doing defensively,” he said. “When we lose the ball we think about going to get it back and that is what matters to us. The fans come here to see their team playing well and fighting.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sergio Ramos enjoys Real Madrid’s first win over Atlético at the Bernabéu in seven years. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

In the end, one goal from Benzema had been enough, just as it had been in Seville. “Madrid are top because you make one small mistake and they kill you,” Marcos Llorente said. Until half time, Atlético had been the better side in a tight game, Ángel Correa hitting the post, Vitolo shooting straight at Courtois with the best chance, and Morata having a big penalty shout turn down. If Madrid had been a little fortunate to be level, Zidane acted. For the first time this season, he made a change at the break. Two of them, in fact. Toni Kroos and Isco came off, Vinicius and Lucas went on, opening up the pitch. “It’s my fault, not theirs, and I feel bad for Isco and Toni but I had to,” Zidane said afterwards. “That’s what I’m here for.”

If it was just as significant that Atlético were forced to replace Álvaro Morata – making him the ninth player they had unavailable, leaving their limitations cruelly exposed and their hope full of holes - the change was decisive. Vinicius and Mendy set up the goal, Zidane’s authority reinforced still further by the result. Once again, he had seen what others didn’t and quietly done something about it. Real Madrid had beaten Atlético at last and the season looked good. Just like he said it would.