Respectful: Atletico forward Griezmann refused to celebrate against his former club Real Sociedad after scoring the decisive goal in their 2-0 win at the Vicente Calderon. PHOTO: REUTERS
The champions never looked in danger from the moment Mikel Gonzalez headed into his own net after just two minutes.
Antoine Griezmann then doubled the hosts' advantage against his former club shortly afterwards to end the game as a contest inside the first 10 minutes.
Sevilla moved level with Valencia in fourth, just four points adrift of Atletico, with a 2-1 win at Levante thanks to first-half goals from Kevin Gameiro and Jose Antonio Reyes.
"Both the goals are down to mistakes we made," lamented Moyes. "I don't think it is a free-kick on the first goal, but we have to defend it and we didn't. We made mistakes and we made mistakes for the second goal as well."
Defeat all but ends Sociedad's outside hopes of qualifying for the Europa League, but the former Manchester United boss insisted he never thought that was a realistic target having taken over the Basque outfit with the remit of avoiding relegation.
"I've aways felt like it would be too difficult to make Europe. The distance to make up was too far," said Moyes. "We've been on a very good run. We've had two difficult away games and I think the players have done a lot of good things."
At the other end of the table minnows Eibar ended an 11-game winless run to ease their relegation fears with a 1-0 victory over Malaga.
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