Sevilla's reliance on the goals of Alvara Negredo cost them on Sunday night as they made all the running but were held to a frustrating goalless draw at home to Levante.
The former Real Madrid forward had scored half of the Rojiblancos 12 league goals prior to Sunday night, and with him unable to fire they had to settle for a point.
Diego Colotto's first goal for Espanyol handed the Catalans their first away win of the campaign at Real Sociedad on Sunday, a victory that moves them out of the relegation zone for the first time this season.
It was Real Sociedad though who carried the greater threat for the first hour as Imanol Agirretxe was denied by a goal-line clearance by Sergio Garcia and Asier Illarramendi saw a spectacular 30-yard volley turned over by Cristian Alvarez.
However, the Basques were made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal and were hit with a sucker punch 12 minutes from time as Colotto was on hand to tap home after Hector Moreno had kept the ball alive from Joan Verdu's corner.
A fourth loss in five games had the home fans calling for manager Philippe Montanier's resignation by the final whistle, but in truth defeat was harsh on his side who missed the invention of top-scorer Antoine Griezmann due to a muscle injury.
Deportivo La Coruna got their first win since the opening game of the season as Bruno Gama's fine individual goal was enough to see off Mallorca 1-0 at the Riazor.
The Portuguese winger was a threat to the visitors' defence all afternoon and showed great skill to open up a shooting chance for himself before firing low past Dudu Aouate in the 30th minute.
Gama and Pizzi also hit the woodwork for the hosts in the second-half but despite a late flurry of long-range efforts from Mallorca they held on to move out of the bottom three.
Ten-man Osasuna remained rooted to the foot of the Primera Division table after Patrick Ebert's late goal handed Valladolid a 1-0 victory at El Sadar.
Kike Sola had wasted a guilt-edged chance to put the hosts ahead with 18 minutes remaining but the game swung in the visitors' favour three minutes later when Ruben Gonzalez was sent off after collecting a second yellow card.
And Valladolid took full advantage as a rapid counter-attack from an Osasuna corner saw Ebert go through on goal and he took his time before chipping the ball beautifully over Andres Fernandez for his second goal in two games.
Rayo Vallecano inflicted Malaga's first home defeat of the season with a 2-1 win thanks to two goals by Piti.
The midfielder opened the scoring from Leo Baptistao's driven cross on 11 minutes but after squandering a number of chances towards the end of the first half, the visitors were pegged back four minutes into the second period as Martin Demichelis headed home Joaquin's free-kick.
Rayo responded brilliantly to conceding and after a sustained spell of pressure, they got the winner they deserved on the hour mark when Leo again teed up Piti to fire into the bottom corner for his fourth goal of the season.
