Diego Simeone has spent more than a decade at the Atlético de Madrid helm making one thing unmistakably clear: results are not accidents. Saturday's 1-0 win over Getafe at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano — achieved with a makeshift starting eleven, a stand-in goalkeeper, and the Champion's League second leg against Tottenham simmering in the background — may be the purest expression yet of what he has quietly assembled at this club.

Jan Oblak was ruled out the morning of the game with a late injury. His replacement, Juan Musso, hadn't had the loudest of auditions in the opening forty-five minutes — Getafe offered precious little going forward — but when the match tightened in the second half, the Argentine shot-stopper delivered exactly what the moment demanded. A reflex block in the 47th minute. A full-stretch diving save against substitute Adrián Liso deep in added time. Neither was a spectacular moment of individual brilliance so much as a professional executing the job assigned to him. That, in essence, is the spirit of this Atlético squad.

The goal that settled the tie was anything but ordinary. In just the seventh minute, right back Nahuel Molina stole possession from Kiko Femenía and — without breaking stride — whipped a venomous strike past David Soria that seemed to arrive almost too fast to follow. That a full-back, operating in a reshuffled back line, produced the decisive moment of the afternoon felt entirely in keeping with a Simeone side that has always demanded attacking contribution from every position on the pitch.

The shadow of Wednesday's UCL tie was felt throughout the second half, particularly as Simeone began to make his substitutions with the away leg against Spurs firmly in mind. Adelardo-era favourite Koke — now 34 years old — led all players with 102 touches and crafted four key passes as the anchor of centrefield composure. When Sørloth grew hot-headed after a crude off-the-ball challenge and had to be taken off, Julián Álvarez came on and reminded everyone why Atlético spent what they spent to bring him in.

Getafe's reduction to ten men should have opened the game; instead, it simply prolonged a tense, scrappy second period that Simeone clearly had no interest in complicating. Lookman and Griezmann were introduced in search of a second goal but could not find a way past Soria, who was in excellent form.

The result moves Atlético two points clear of Villarreal in third. The context, though, is bigger than the table. When clubs of Atlético's ambition speak about squad depth it is usually in the abstract — an aspiration rather than a fact. On Saturday, against a physical Getafe side with everything to prove, Simeone's so-called second string offered the most convincing argument yet that at this Atlético Madrid, there simply is no B-team.