Atletico stumble again as Leganes welcome La Liga to Butarque

I thought long and hard about copying and pasting last week's match report in here. Thematically, it was the exact same game Atletico played out against Alaves last Sunday night.

The visitors started the game with a midfield of Koke, Gabi, Augusto and Saul and while they looked good for much of the opening 45 minutes, they still lacked the final pass as they looked to break down Leganes. Early on, it looked as though Simeone's conservative outlook was going to come back to bite Atletico on the backside.

The newly-promoted side, who welcomed La Liga football to their stadium for the first time in their 90 year history, were more proactive than Alaves were a week previous and Atletico had chances in behind but nothing was giving.

The best chance they had in that opening half came via the returning Antoine Griezmann when he rifled a shot that stung the palm of Jon Ander Serantes in Leganes' goal.

It was 0-0 when Jose Sanchez blew his whistle for half-time and many expected Simeone to make changes; he did not.

Atletico returned from the dressing room after their half-time team talk and it was much of the same with frustratingly slow build-up play, no creativity and the reliance on a moment of inspiration that never came from one of their attacking players.

Kevin Gameiro was replaced by Fernando Torres after 58 minutes but not before the French striker tried his best to break the dealock when he stepped inside two Leganes defenders with a lovely move only to drive his shot at Serantes.

Carrasco replaced Gabi shortly after but it was much of the same again with no real change in how Atletico attacked of the speed of their play.

Nico Gaitan replaced Augusto with 12 minutes remaining and clipped a lovely ball to Yannick Carrasco, but his effort hit an advancing Serantes and went out for yet another corner.

Torres had a chance late on when Filipe Luis put the ball on a plate for him but his header was straight at Serantes, yet again, as Atletico let the hosts off the hook.

The game finished 0-0 after a frustrating night for Atletico and in a game which Leganes can say they tried their best to play positive football and even pushed forward in injury time despite being the smaller dog in the fight.

Atletico have now dropped four points in their opening two games with Real Madrid remaining on 100% and Barcelona to play their second game of the season tomorrow.

Is it time to sound the panic klaxon? Let's give it one more week.