Villarreal back on top as purple patch continues

Villarreal's Argentinian Fabrizio Fuentes celebrates his goal during their Spanish league football match at Madrigal Stadium in Valencia. Villareal won 1-0.

Villarreal knocked Barcelona off the Spanish first division summit with a 1-0 triumph over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday to record their 13th league victory in their last 14 outings.

Villarreal went top of the table for the first time in their history in midweek and lead the standings again with Argentine defender Fabricio Fuentes scoring a rare goal just after the hour mark to sink Bilbao.

Villarreal are now one point ahead of Barcelona, who crushed Levante 4-1 on Saturday, and their 5-0 mauling by Real Madrid has been forgotten with a return of 39 points from a possible 42 making impressive reading.

Real have the chance to reclaim top spot providing they can defeat Getafe later on Sunday.

Getafe have proved the bogey team for the nine-times European champions and the local derby has added spice with Real coach Bernd Schuster facing the club he left in the summer.

Elsewhere Atletico Madrid notched their third straight win with a 2-0 victory against Osasuna to stay four points behind Villarreal.

Old boy Raul Garcia returned to haunt the club he left in the summer scoring the opener after 37 minutes and Sergio Aguero scored his fifth goal of the campaign late on to wrap-up the points.

The win was a landmark for Atletico's Mexican coach Javier Aguirre who had never before won three league games in a row.

Espanyol also continued their impressive start to the season with the UEFA Cup runners-up defeating Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 thanks to a goal from Raul Tamudo.

Down at the bottom Murcia came out on top in the battle of the promoted sides thrashing Valladolid 4-1.

Valladolid had been reduced to nine men after just half an hour with defender Daniel Cifuentes and French goalkeeper Jean Butelle being given their marching orders.

Real Betis moved out of the bottom three defeating Mallorca 3-0 to register their first win of the season in style.

Later on Sunday Valencia, three points behind Villarreal in fourth, travel to Recreativo Huelva targeting a fifth straight win as they look to build confidence for Wednesday's Champions League tussle with Chelsea.