Atlético Madrid 5-0 Sporting Gijón: Player Ratings

Jan Oblak, GK: 6

No dramatic penalty saves required this time. The Slovene made a grand total of one save Saturday and kept his fourth consecutive clean sheet.

Šime Vrsaljko, RB: 6

A solid debut from the Croatian. Looked very comfortable in defense and had a few nice moments of link-up play in the final third. His crossing is not yet up to Juanfran's standard but Vrsaljko held his own. Simeone thought so too, saying post-game he would provide good competition for Juanfran.

Stefan Savic, CB: 8

Savic got in the way of everything Saturday, staying at home while Diego Godin played as a box-to-box center back. The Montenegrin blocked four shots and put nary a foot wrong - just one foul to his name over the 90 minutes. He definitely responded in kind after Jose Gimenez’ strong performance against PSV on Tuesday.

Diego Godin, CB: 8

A bit more freewheeling than we are used to seeing, but despite his frequent trips forward into the opposing 18-yard box, Godin still found time to halt any Sporting Gijon attack (there weren’t many). The captain was his usual, superb self Saturday.

Filipe Luis, LB: 8

Other than Antoine Griezmann, has a shout at being Atletico’s best player thus far this season. Filipe was terrific again against Sporting, setting up Kevin Gameiro’s goal after playing a neat one-two with the Frenchman and giving opposing right back Lillo so many fits that Abelardo had to move him to left back after the intermission. The Brazilian also cleaned up well in defense when he had to. Such a sound, all-around performance.

Nicolas Gaitan, RM: 6

Gaitan is still working on developing chemistry with his new teammates but he took two important steps forward on Saturday: he completed 90 minutes and showed off an exemplary work rate. The latter is often the first step to becoming one of Diego Simeone’s stalwarts and the boss will be pleased that Gaitan kept fighting until the end, when he drew a penalty in the 90th minute to give Fernando Torres a brace and the team a manita.

Koke, CM: 8

Led all players with 118 touches and assisted Griezmann’s second goal with an innocent-looking pass that was taken up and lashed into the goal from long range. Koke is so, so influential when played in his natural position and in Gabi’s absence was able to dictate the midfield with aplomb.

Saul Niguez, CM: 7

Asked to play a bit deeper on his 100th game for the club, Saul rarely ventured forward Saturday and played well in his role as defensive anchor. He did pick up a few fouls but broke up play when called upon, recording some key interceptions and clearances. It takes a very unique and important player to go from scoring a Champions League golazo in an advanced role one day to shielding a back four with verve the next.

Yannick Carrasco, LM: 6

Carrasco’s pace constantly unsettled the visitors from Gijon and the Belgian had a shot glance off the post towards the end of the first half. Simeone removed him at the break as he cast an eye toward Barcelona on Wednesday.

Antoine Griezmann, FW: 10

Griezmann didn’t even play 70 minutes and still gets a perfect rating. He opened the scoring inside two minutes with a powerful effort 1v1 against Ivan Cuellar and ran the show in attack before and after scoring a long-range strike after half an hour. Many of Griezmann’s touches - he averaged one per minute - came around the center circle, where he could spray passes and link up with Filipe and Gaitan, as well as the two men who assisted his goals: Gameiro and Koke. Grizi is on four goals already and joins Ruben Castro, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez atop the Pichichi leaderboard.

Kevin Gameiro, FW: 8

Simeone said post-match that this was an important day for Gameiro and his confidence, even though he did all his damage in the first five minutes. Gameiro beat Fernando Amorebieta to the ball to set up Griezmann’s opener and scored a peach of a goal after cutting inside and firing into the top corner a few minutes later. The 29-year-old also had a goal ruled out (incorrectly) for offside prior to his removal on the hour in preparation for Wednesday’s partidazo at Camp Nou.

Augusto Fernandez, CM: 6

Entered for Carrasco at halftime. Augusto got some much-needed burn and was busy as a beaver in the middle of the park. He also completed 98% of his passes. Would anticipate him to be on the bench this coming Wednesday after he was dropped in the Netherlands earlier this week.

Angel Correa, FW: 6

Entered for Gameiro on the hour. Assisted Torres’ first goal, the team’s fourth, after a powerful run and perfectly-timed pass.

Fernando Torres, FW: 9

Entered for Griezmann in the 68th minute. Within five minutes, Torres had opened his account for 2016-17 with a nifty right-footed finish past Cuellar. El Nino looked up for this one, even with the three points assured early on, and completed his first league brace since returning to Atletico by sending Cuellar the wrong way from the spot in added time.