The Europa League holder has enjoyed a superb start to the season, and with its Colombian star in fine form it can be a protagonist on the continent again this campaign.

It’s rare that a club can be thrashed 4-0 and remain swelling with confidence, but Sevilla has earned the right to be glowing with good faith after a sublime opening to the 2014-15 season.

Five wins in seven games since the UEFA Supercup defeat to Real Madrid in mid-August have left Unai Emery and his Rojiblancos team sitting pretty – both domestically and in the Europa League, the competition they won in May.

Their four-goal thumping at Atletico Madrid on Saturday was far from ideal, but they have otherwise been borderline flawless with every other result over the past six weeks. Sitting above European champion Real Madrid (which has scored more than any other team in the Spanish top flight) after six Liga games is a brilliant way to move on from a campaign in which they blew expectations out of the water.

Like every other club in Europe that’s not overflowing with oil or broadcast rights money, Sevilla once again had to cash in over the summer.

Star man Ivan Rakitic fully earned his 20 million euro move to become Xavi’s successor at Barcelona, but his loss could easily have derailed a team heavily reliant on his moments of magic last season. Defenders Alberto Moreno and Federico Fazio were lost to Liverpool and Tottenham, respectively, further dismantling Unai Emery’s men.

Arrivals were only cut-price investments or low-key loan deals. No marquee names were added, unlike last year when Kevin Gameiro was bought from Paris Saint-Germain with the money used from the sales of Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas to Manchester City. In other words, the Europa League victory bore no obvious fruit. It could easily have been one step forward, two steps back.

But the confidence pendulum swings both ways. Instead of falling face first into midtable mediocrity and out of Europe, Sevilla has followed Atletico’s recent example which has shown that you can continue to upset richer rivals with the right mentality and teamwork.

Emery’s men have thus dived in the direction of further successes. This was a team virtually nobody considered to be a viable contender for a top-four finish. But fourth in La Liga is where they sit and at the heart of the success at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan is powerful and proficient No. 9 Carlos Bacca.

Bacca joined Sevilla from Club Brugge for a chunky €7 million last year and rapidly paid his transfer fee back in goals. The Colombia international, part of the World Cup 2014 squad, scored 21 times for the Andalusian club in 2013-14 and already has four goals in this campaign.

Dynamic, aggressive and clinical, he has led the line superbly and linked up wonderfully with the likes of Aleix Vidal, Vitolo and Barcelona loanee Denis Suarez.

“To qualify for the Champions League is a dream for us,” Bacca told Goal in September. “We will work hard to get that. We’ve started better than last season but the year is long and we must keep this level up.”

The 28-year-old is in the peak of his striking powers and is likely to cost any interested suitors his buy-out clause of €30m after Sevilla announced Bacca had signed an improved contract on Tuesday.

The striker has conceded that the team’s priority right now is European qualification, but retaining the Europa League is also an objective.

“We are focused on La Liga because we need to regularly qualify for European competitions,” Bacca said. “I don’t think that we are favourites to win the Europa League again. We must go step by step.”

Sevilla’s visit to Croatian minnow Rijeka on Thursday is not really golden ticket material, however such is the professionalism in Emery’s side that it won’t be taken lightly. The 2-0 win over Feyenoord on matchday one a fortnight ago was a solid start, with Sevilla outplaying a talented, young Dutch outfit.

In 2005, Sevilla had never won anything outside of Spain. But within two years, it had become only the second team in the history of the tournament to win it back-to-back.

Once more it has set its sights set on another double, and this season it would become the first team ever to triumph four times in the competition. Bacca and his Sevilla cohorts might not be the most obvious history-makers, but they have the poise, the firepower and now the experience to ruffle feathers in the Europa League yet again.