The Weekly Rojiblanco: Punched in the Mouth Edition

Hello Atléticos, and welcome to another edition of the Weekly Rojiblanco. The big news of this week is obviously the renewal of Šime Vrsaljko which Jeremy covered in detail here. Once considered a likely departure during the winter transfer window, it’s nice to have Vrsaljko locked up long-term.

In the short term, he will remain an important piece of a backline that will be without Diego Godin for a little while following reconstructive face surgery. For his part the Uruguayan took to Instagram to signal that he is in good spirits and starting on the road to recovery.

• Atleti’s penalty drought nearing legendary status

This past weekend Atlético Madrid became just the second team in Liga history to make it through 22 games without being awarded a penalty or seeing an opponent sent off, a mark previously set by Real Betis in the 1975-76 season.

Diego Simeone vented some of his frustrations with the drought following the Valencia match which saw a bumbling challenge send Godin to the hospital for the aforementioned surgery.

“If Godin doesn’t get a penalty then someone is going to have to be killed to get one,” he said. “Let’s see if one day we will finally get a penalty.”

• Milestone for Koke

The 26-year-old midfielder will become the youngest player to reach 350 appearances for Atlético against Málaga this weekend. At just 26 years old, I’m sure we can expect Koke to remain a stalwart for the club for at least a few more years and possibly challenge the top spots on the all-time appearances list.

• Diego Speaks

I’ll send you out with this clip of Diego Costa speaking about his return to Atlético. Costa was voted player of the month by the fans.