Atlético Madrid go top as Simeone's side win without the ball

Atlético Madrid won 2-0 at Levante on 31 October 2026 and moved to the top of LaLiga, at least until Barcelona's evening kick-off against Alavés. Alejandro Grimaldo scored in the 36th minute and Giuliano Simeone added a second in the 62nd, and the visitors conceded only two shots on target all afternoon. It was a seventh consecutive league victory, taking Diego Simeone's side to 28 points from 11 matches, one point clear of Barcelona. Levante stayed 16th on 10 points.

The scoreline and the shot count tell different stories, and the difference is the point. Levante had 20 shots to Atlético's 11, and 1.25 expected goals to Atlético's 0.58. The home side also had more corners, five to three. On territory and volume, Levante were the more persistent team. On the two measures that decide matches — big chances and shots on target — Atlético edged it, two to one and five to four. The away side scored twice from relatively little, and that is not an accident of one afternoon so much as a description of how this team is currently winning.

Atlético lined up in a 4-4-2, and the structure held even as Levante pushed numbers forward. The two goals came from the kind of moments that reward organisation and sharpness rather than sustained pressure. Grimaldo punished a defensive error by Jon Ander Olasagasti with a powerful finish from a tight angle. Giuliano Simeone then latched onto a through ball from Álex Baena and finished with a flip-flap past the Levante goalkeeper. Baena was also involved in the disallowed goal, a 16th-minute effort from Morten Hjulmand ruled out after a vertical pass through the middle. Three clear openings, three moments of quality, from a side that did not need to dominate the ball to create them.

That pattern is visible across the season, not just here. Atlético's expected goals in this match, 0.58, sits well below their average of 1.46 across their earlier 2026/27 matches in all competitions. Their open-play expected goals, 0.53, is similarly below an average of 1.22. Their touches in the opposition box, 15, are down on an average of 23.2, and their three corners are down on an average of 6.2. By the underlying numbers, this was one of their least assertive attacking performances of the campaign. They won it 2-0 anyway, with goals scored minus expected goals at 1.42 against a season average of 0.0. That gap is the story: on this afternoon, the finishing was far better than the chance creation.

Whether that is sustainable is the question the coming weeks will answer. A side that scores at a rate well above its expected goals can keep winning, but the margin is thin, and the fixtures are about to get harder. Atlético's recent run includes a 2-0 win over Manchester United and a 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart in the Champions League, alongside league wins over Deportivo Alavés, Espanyol and Deportivo A Coruña. A Champions League tie against Bayern Munich now sits on the calendar. If Atlético defend as they did here — two shots on target conceded — they will be difficult to beat. If the chances dry up against better opposition, the finishing will have to keep carrying them.

There is also the question of what Barcelona do later on 31 October. Atlético's 28 points put them provisionally first, one point ahead, and that position may last only a few hours. What is already clear is that this is a sustained challenge rather than a hot streak. Seven straight league wins, built on a settled 4-4-2 and a habit of winning matches without controlling them, have taken Simeone's side to the summit. The summer arrivals — Morten Hjulmand, Rodrigo Mendoza, Obed Vargas, Cristian Romero, Jonathan David and Ademola Lookman — have been folded into a team that still bears its manager's signature. The departures of Rodrigo De Paul, Antoine Griezmann and Conor Gallagher, among others, have not disrupted the results.

For now, the table says Atlético are the best team in Spain. The numbers from this match say they got there without playing like it. Both things can be true, and the next few weeks will show which one matters more.