Antoine Griezmann fired himself to the top of La Liga's scoring charts and Atletico Madrid to third in the table in a 1-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna.
France striker Griezmann broke the deadlock against 10-man Depor with 21 minutes to play, his fifth league goal of the new campaign.
That sent Atletico up to third and also drew him level with Barcelona striker Luis Suarez's early pace-setting goal tally.
Deportivo had Faycal Fajr sent off on the stroke of half-time for two quickfire bookings, the Morocco midfielder paying the price for continually letting his aggression get the better of him.
Atletico had wasted a number of chances in a goalless and frustrating first half, chiefly when Griezmann dragged wide when through on goal.
Diego Simeone's men continued to press after the turnaround, determined to capitalise on their numerical advantage.
But the hosts were forced to wait until the latter stages of the contest to claim the vital breakthrough.
When it came Griezmann's finish harboured an air of inevitability, the 25-year-old tapping home without issue after good approach play from Kevin Gameiro.
Griezmann sustained his rich scoring form just days after revealing he has opted to relinquish the services of an agent and represent himself.
The France star told L'Equipe newspaper "From now on I'm going to operate without an agent," in a declaration interpreted by many to boost Manchester United's chances of signing the livewire forward in 2017.
Paris St Germain will be another of Europe's top clubs coveting Atletico's chief talent, but for now it is Simeone who has the pleasure of managing one of the continent's outstanding players.
And it was that class that ultimately decided a contest that could so easily have descended into a dank stalemate.
Allied to Griezmann's two wasted half-chances in the first half, the France star had the ball in the back of the net at the start of the second only to see his strike chalked off for offside.
Deportivo keeper German Lux then pulled off a fine point-blank save to deny Angel Correia as the hosts' frustrations grew.
But then up popped Griezmann, darting onto Gameiro's neat ball across the face of goal to tap home and release the pressure.