The departure of a number of players has obviously hurt the Rotterdam outfit and they lost further ground on early pace-setters PSV and Ajax with defeat at De Kuip.
Serbia & Montengro international Mateja Kezman opened the scoring for Guus Hiddink's side after just seven minutes, but for Thomas Buffel to level the scores on 18 minutes.
Kezman grabbed his second to restore PSV's lead after 56 minutes and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink sealed the points 20 minutes later with a fine turn and shot.
The result puts Feyenoord top a point ahead of Ajax, who missed the chance to regain their leadership later on Sunday by falling to a 4-2 defeat at NAC Breda.
Ronald Koeman's side had a torrid time in the FujiFilm Stadion and fell behind to a goal from Nourdin Boukhari after just seven minutes, as the Moroccan notched against the club he is currently on loan from.
Former Feynoord man Johan Elmander then hit a brace on 46 and 57 minutes to put the hosts in a commanding 3-0 lead and cruising towards the points.
The Amsterdammers came back into the game with Victor Sikora and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring within two minutes of each other and make it a nervy last 18 minutes for NAC.
However, Stefano Seedorf grabbed NAC's fourth goal in the final minute to finally make the game safe for NAC and put an early dent in Ajax's title challenge.
Utrecht took the lead in the game at Groningen after just two minutes thanks to a goal from Stefaan Tanghe, but Glen Salmon's equaliser gave the hosts a share of the spoils.
Match Summaries:
Groningen v Utrecht
Feyenoord v PSV
NAC v Ajax
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