Aritz Aduriz's brilliant volley was enough to see off Sevilla 1-0 and give Athletic Bilbao a second straight win.
The striker, who has scored four of Athletic's seven goals this season, hit the only goal of the game in the 13th minute but then had to be substituted on the half hour mark with a muscular problem.
The win sees Athletic move further away from the relegation zone and they appear to be on the way up after a torrid start to the season, while Sevilla suffered only their second defeat of the season and missed an opportunity to go top of the Primera Division after Barcelona's defeat at Celta on Saturday.
Valencia moved to within a point of leaders Real Madrid with a 3-1 derby victory at Villarreal, although the hosts will be wondering just how they failed to get anything out of a game for the second successive week.
Villarreal dominated for large periods at El Madrigal but an early own goal from Manuel Trigueros put Valencia in front before a second-half brace from Germany centre-back Shkodran Mustafi took the game away from the Yellow Submarine.
Trigueros managed to pull one back late on to give the hosts a glimmer of hope but, despite charging forward in the final moments, they could not get any closer.
It was Villarreal's second successive loss after conceding two goals in the last two minutes to lose 2-1 at Sevilla last time out, and it was another result that will really stick in their craw.
Levante moved out of the relegation zone after edging to a 2-1 victory over Almeria for their first home win of the season.
The game looked to be heading for a draw when Jonathan Zongo struck in the 71st minute to cancel out David Barral's first-half opener.
But Victor Casadesus knocked into an empty net just moments later to put the hosts back in charge and they held on to claim their first victory under new coach Lucas Alcaraz.
Nine-man Elche moved off the foot of the table by claiming their first win in seven matches as Jonathas' double helped them to a 2-1 victory over Espanyol.
Jonathas scored either side of half-time although the strugglers made life difficult for themselves as Garry Rodrigues and Domingo Cisma were dismissed to give Espanyol hope.
Although Christian Stuani was able to set up a frantic finale, Fran Escriba's men were able to hang on for just their second win of the season which moves them out of the bottom three.