Sevilla are two games into the new La Liga season and have taken maximum points from both, and this one barely felt like a contest once Athletic Club were reduced to ten men inside a quarter of an hour at San Mamés.
Yuri Berchiche, the veteran left-back, was shown a straight red card in the 11th minute for a foul on the edge of his own box, and Sevilla needed only four more minutes to make the numerical advantage count. Oso pounced after goalkeeper Unai Simón was caught in possession, rolling the ball home to put the visitors ahead.
Athletic, to their credit, did not fold immediately and worked their way back into the game for spells of the first half despite playing a man light. But the second period belonged entirely to Sevilla.
Chidera Ejuke, restored to the side after a summer spent on the fringes and reportedly close to an exit, came off the bench and needed only minutes to make his mark, converting in the 50th minute to double the lead.
Seven minutes later it was 3-0. Isaac Romero, Sevilla's first-choice striker, added a third with a finish that all but ended the contest as a spectacle, leaving Athletic to play out the rest of the afternoon for pride alone.
Aitor Paredes gave the home crowd something to cheer in the 70th minute, heading in from a corner to make it 3-1, but Sevilla's defence held firm from there and never looked in danger of surrendering the points.
The result means Sevilla have won both of their opening two league fixtures, banking six points and an early statement of intent under their current setup. Athletic Club, by contrast, will have to regroup after a chastening afternoon on home soil, undone as much by Berchiche's early dismissal as anything Sevilla did with the ball.
San Mamés, so often a fortress for Athletic in recent seasons, offered little protection this time, and the visitors leave the Basque Country with a result that will have been far more comfortable than the 3-1 scoreline might suggest given how the game was shaped in the opening quarter of an hour.
