RCD Mallorca 0-2 Atletico Madrid: 3 talking points

Atletico Madrid defeated Real Mallorca at the Iberostar stadium, with goals from Diego Costa and Joao Felix handing Diego Simeone's men all three points.

The home side came into the fixture without a win since matchday one, and in light of this, Atletico Madrid were heavy favourites to win the game.

The visitors cranked up the pressure from kickoff, and got the rewards for the early pressure when Diego Costa rose to nod home a Koke cross in the 26th minute. Shortly after, the referee pointed to the spot for a handball in the box, but later rescinded his decision after rechecking with VAR.

The second half saw Mallorca gain a foothold in the game, with Japanese teen sensation Takefusa Kubo putting the Atleti defence on the backfoot; but the wind was sucked out of their lungs 19 minutes after the restart when Joao Felix showed excellent control and technique to blast the ball past Manolo Reina off a Budimir deflection.

Expectedly, Los Rojiblancos held on for the win, and the victory sees them head back to the summit of the table pending the outcome of other results.

Here, we shall be highlighting three talking points from the fixture.

#3 Atletico Madrid back to winning ways

RCD Mallorca v Club Atletico de Madrid - La Liga

Atletico Madrid's last victory came before the last international break when they came from two goals down to defeat Eibar 3-2 at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Their first fixture after the break saw them lose 2-0 away to Real Sociedad, and they followed that up with two consecutive draws with Juventus and Celta Vigo at the Wanda Metropolitano.

These setbacks saw Diego Simeone's men lose ground in the LaLiga race, and they entered matchday 6 in sixth spot on the standings.

The 47-year-old would have been seeking a victory against the newly promoted side to get their title ambitions back on track.

That proved to be the case, as the capital club dominated the game in their usual dogged fashion, and this was as good a time as ever to get back to winning ways, with the Madrid derby against city rivals Real Madrid coming up at the weekend.

#2 Moment of madness from Alvaro Morata sees Atletico Madrid reduced to 10 men

Following his forgettable spell with Chelsea in the Premier League, Alvaro Morata arrived Atletico Madrid on loan in January, and convinced significantly to warrant his loan spell being made permanent over the summer.

The Spanish international began the campaign in impressive fashion, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Getafe on the opening day of the season, but a knee injury sustained during training kept him sidelined since the end of August.

He returned to fitness last week, but was started in the game against Celta Vigo over the weekend from the bench.

He was once more placed on the bench for the fixture against Mallorca, but with Atletico Madrid already 2-0 up, Diego Simeone substituted goalscorer Diego Costa and replaced him with Morata in the 69th minute.

This was ostensibly an opportunity for the 26-year-old to have a run-about and get back to match fitness, but barely eight minutes into his stay on the field, the former Real Madrid man had what can only be described as a fit of madness.

A coming together with Xisco Campos let to an issuance of yellow cards to both players by referee Alejandro Jose Hernandez Hernandez, but not content with that, Morata uttered something provocative and was issued a second yellow to send him out for an early shower just moments later.

This was an unnecessary show of petulance, especially with Atletico Madrid already winning, and with his red card, Alvaro Morata has ruled himself out of contention for the Madrid derby on Saturday.

#1 Diego Costa scores first goal since March

Diego Costa returned to Atletico Madrid in January 2018 after a spell with Chelsea, but it has been a less than stellar return for the Spanish international.

After starring as the figurehead of Atletico Madrid's attack during his first spell, his second homecoming has not seen him deliver the goods, and he has scored just six goals from 37 matches.

While his physicality and never-say-die attitude means that he is always a useful asset on the field, the fact of the matter is that Diego Costa is a striker whose job it is to score goals.

However, heading into the fixture with Mallorca, the 30-year-old had not scored a goal in LaLiga since March.

This is a period encompassing 13 matches, and even though Costa missed eight of those after receiving an eight-game ban for insulting the referee's mother in the league loss to Barcelona, Costa had started in each of Atletico's previous three matches.

For a player of his calibre, this was a poor return to say the least, and this was a problem that coach Diego Simeone admitted to trying to solve on the eve of the game.

Costa finally got off the mark this term in the 26th minute of the game, and with that long-elusive goal now scored, he would hope that this marks the start of