Goal machine Radamel Falcao put on a show for the watching Roberto Mancini as he guided his Atletico Madrid side to a thrilling 2-1 win over Malaga - and a share of the Primera Division lead.
On a night when Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo proved their undeniable worth with braces in the Clasico, Falcao proved he has a game that can rival the pair of them at Vicente Calderon.
Whether Manchester City boss Mancini was there to watch the Portuguese or not, he will surely not have failed to notice another all-action display from the former Porto man.
He opened the scoring with his 11th of the season six minutes in and, when it looked as though Roque Santa Cruz's brilliant header would deny Atletico a share of top spot, Weligton put through his own goal in added time, under severe pressure from Falcao who may well look to claim the goal as his own.
Meanwhile, Granada secured their first away win of the season as second-half goals from Youssef Al-Arabi and Gabriel Torje handed them a 2-1 win at Mallorca.
There was little to choose between the sides for the first hour, but the turning point came with 25 minutes to go when Emilio Nsue was shown a red card for bringing down Torje as he sped into the area and El-Arabi tucked away the resulting spot-kick.
The visitors' numerical advantage only lasted for two minutes as Yacine Brahimi was shown a second yellow card, but Torje doubled their advantage with an extremely cool finish from El-Arabi's scooped pass.
Tomer Hemed gave Mallorca hope with a brilliant header five minutes from time and the Islanders could even have snatched a draw as Tomo did well to turn away Victor Casadesus' effort in stoppage time.
A superb Obafemi Martins strike proved the difference as Levante defeated city rivals Valencia 1-0 in Sunday's early kick-off.
Martins scored the only goal of the match midway through the opening half, controlling his goalkeeper's long boot downfield before powering the ball home high into the net.
Victory maintains Levante's unbeaten start to the season on home turf, while Valencia remain without a win on their travels and now lie 14th, just two points outside the relegation zone.
Aritz Aduriz's early goal earned Athletic Bilbao a much-needed 1-0 win at home to fellow strugglers Osasuna.
The striker guided the ball home from inside the area to give last season's Europa League runners-up just their second league win of the campaign.
Osasuna, in the bottom three, could count themselves desperately unfortunate not to have taken something from the game as they hit the bar twice and a post once, but the hosts rode their luck.
On Saturday, Oscar Gonzalez's header 10 minutes from time secured a 1-1 draw for Real Valladolid and denied 10-man Espanyol their first win of the season.
The visitors were dealt a blow when Victor Alvarez was sent off just before half-time, but defied their numerical disadvantage to take the lead through Joan Verdu's penalty.
Valladolid were level 10 minutes later, though, when Oscar headed home Patrick Ebert's corner.
Real Betis hit back from two successive league defeats by beating Real Sociedad 2-0.
Kick-off was delayed by 17 minutes at the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera Stadium because of a power failure.
Once proceedings got under way, Paulao headed the home side in front after 18 minutes and Ruben Castro made the game safe nine minutes from time.
Betis' night ended on a sour note with the dismissal of Mario for a second yellow card, but the points were already secure.
Getafe ground out a 1-0 win over nine-man Real Zaragoza thanks to Diego Castro's second-half penalty.
Ndri Romaric was shown a straight red card after just nine minutes, but it took until the hour mark for the visitors to go in front, when Alvaro Gonzalez became the second dismissal for tripping Pedro Leon and Castro scored from the penalty spot.
Getafe themselves were then reduced to 10 men for the final 10 minutes as Abdel Barrada also saw red but they held on.
