Unbeaten Getafe go back to the top
Unbeaten Getafe continued their remarkable season by winning 1-0 at near-neighbours Atletico Madrid to go back to the top of the Spanish first division on Saturday.
The only goal of the game came after 71 minutes when Mariano Pernia fired home a free kick from just outside the area, his hard and low shot flying through Atletico's wall.
The club from Madrid's southern suburbs defied the odds to get three points after they had been rightly reduced to 10 men six minutes early, when Mario Cotelo was shown a red card for hacking down Atletico' Martin Petrov.
"We deserve to be where we are, we've worked hard for it," said Getafe coach Bernd Schuster.
Remarkably, Getafe have now won all three of their away games this season, after winning just one during the whole of last season, when they spent the entire year in the lower half of the table.
Saturday was about preserving unbeaten records as Valencia beat Real Sociedad 2-1 to move up to third.
The 2003-04 champions opened the scoring after 34 minutes when Argentine playmaker Pablo Aimar headed home a Francisco Rufete cross.
David Villa added Valencia's second barely two minutes after the break, his fifth goal in as many games.
Villa waltzed through a sloppy Sociedad defence before slotting the ball home past Sociedad's oncoming goalkeeper Aitor Riesgo with a left foot shot from the edge of the six yard box.
Nihat Kahveci got one back for Sociedad just after the hour but the San Sebastian side couldn't repeat their feat of Wednesday when they came from two down to win 3-2 over Atletico Madrid.
"(Santiago) Canizares was our saviour today. He got us two extra points with two important saves," said Valencia coach Quique Flores, paying tribute to his goalkeeper whose error against Barcelona on Wednesday had cost them a win.
Reigning champions Barcelona got their first domestic away victory away with a 4-1 win at Real Betis.
Samuel Eto'o should have got Barca off to a good start after just eight minutes but he hit his penalty against the post.
However, Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel, starting his first game since moving from PSV Eindhoven in the summer, headed the visitors' opener after 19 minutes from a Xavi Hernandez free kick.
Betis were then reduced to 10 men a minute later when Ricardo Oliviera got a yellow card for fouling his compatriot and Barca left back Belletti, and then received his marching orders for protesting about the decision.
Against the odds, Juanito Gutierrez headed an equaliser for Betis eight minutes from the break but the home side ran out of steam in the second half.
Eto'o made up for his earlier miss with two goals in the second period, a clinical left foot strike just before the hour and then another from close range 13 minutes from time.
Santi Ezquerro completed the bad night for Betis with his first goal for Barca two minutes from the whistle.
Real Zaragoza and Deportivo La Coruna also stayed unbeaten after they drew 1-1.
Zaragoza's Diego Milito found the net after 13 minutes before Diego Tristan equalised for Deportivo with a header on the stroke of half time.
Villarreal finally showed some of the form that took them to third last season and crawled off the bottom of the table by winning 2-1 at Espanyol, their first win of the season.
Josico Moreno connected with a Juan Roman Riquelme free kick just before the break for Villarreal's opening goal.
Luis Garcia equalised after 59 minutes but Villarreal took just seven minutes to get their noses in front again with Marcos Senna finishing off an elaborate move through the midfield.
Real Madrid travel to Alaves on Sunday and celebrate the return of Sergio Ramos and Julio Baptista after suspension.
Celta Vigo, who started the weekend as league leaders, play host to Sevilla on Sunday and can regain pole position if they beat their visitors from the south.