Grenada boosted their survival prospects in Spain's top flight while rock-bottom Racing Santander are one step closer to the drop.
Wins for Granada, Bilbao, Atletico and Valencia on Sunday
Grenada boosted their survival prospects in Spain's top flight on Sunday while rock-bottom Racing Santander are one step closer to the drop.
Valencia moved four points clear of Malaga in the standings, for 24 hours at least, following an empatic 4-0 victory over nine-man
Real Betis at the Mestalla.
Jonas opened the scoring with six minutes on the clock before the visitors' hopes of salvaging something were dashed when Jose Dorado was sent off.
Sofiane Feghouli padded their Los Che's advantage in the 63rd minute by finishing off a sweeping move in the middle.
Valencia finished the game in style with further goals from Roberto Saldado and substitute Pablo Piatti before the visitors lost another man when substitute Jorge Molina was given his marching orders.
High-flying Malaga will be out to move to within a point of third place when they travel to Osasuna in Monday night's clash.
Two goals in two second-half minutes from Arda Turan guided
Atletico Madrid to a comfortable 3-1 win over
Espanyol.
Diego Godin had headed the hosts in front inside 10 minutes but Didac Vila replied for Espanyol with a fine finish shortly afterwards.
Arda restored Atletico's lead just before the hour mark with a stunning overhead kick and the Turkish midfielder extended the lead moments later as his left-footed shot crept past Cristian Alvarez at his near post.
Racing Santander were sent one step closer to relegation while
Athletic Bilbao crept back into the European places with a 1-0 win.
Gaizka Toquero got the only goal in the 12th minute to leave Racing 11 points from safety with four games left to go, while Athletic go up to sixth place.
The result was perhaps harsh on Racing who created plenty of chances but, in keeping with a record that has seen them score only nine goals in 18 home matches, they could not find a breakthrough.
Carlos Vela's spectacular overhead-kick five minutes from time handed
Real Sociedad a point from an entertaining 1-1 draw with
Villarreal.
The visitors dominated for long spells in the first half and took the lead three minutes before the break as Marcos Senna fired in off the post from just inside the area.
Sociedad then had Claudio Bravo to thank as the Chilean keeper denied Marco Ruben and Cani to keep his side in the game after waves of attacks from the hosts.
The equaliser eventually arrived as Vela acrobatically turned in Xabi Prieto's header for his fifth goal in his last five games.
Granada secured their first win in four games to move eight points clear of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over
Getafe.
Franco Jara put the hosts in front after 18 minutes as he latched onto Carlos Martins' great through ball and calmly slotted past Miguel Angel Moya.
Getafe only really had one clear-cut chance to get level when Inigo Lopez's slip allowed Diego Castro to stride through on goal, but he went for power rather than accuracy and sent his shot just wide.
