Barcelona eased to a 4-0 victory over Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou as Lionel Messi netted on his comeback.
Barcelona, who started the match with Messi on the bench after his return from injury, came close to opening the scoring when Neymar struck the crossbar early on, with Luis Suarez unable to convert the rebound.
They broke the deadlock on 21 minutes when Rafinha fired home from a tight angle from Suarez's throughball, and the Brazil international doubled their advantage when hooking home after Gerard Pique had seen a header saved.
They added a third two minutes before the break, with Suarez slipping the ball under Deportivo keeper German Lux from Neymar's throughball.
Luis Enrique brought on Paco Alcacer for Suarez at half-time, and Messi came on for Sergio Busquets on 55 minutes and fired home at the near post moments later.
Depor defender Laure was then shown a red card for an elbow on Neymar.
Alcacer went close for the champions and Jeremy Mathieu saw a header ruled out for offside.
Real Madrid halted the whispers of criticism towards coach Zinedine Zidane by crushing Real Betis 6-1 at the Estadio Benito Villamarin.
Four successive draws in all competitions had raised a certain level of unease among observers at the Bernabeu, but Raphael Varane's header gave them the perfect start and Karim Benzema made it 2-0 just after the half-hour mark after they were gifted possession by Betis veteran Joaquin.
Marcelo added a scrappy third from an offside position and they went into half-time 4-0 up as Isco rounded off a brilliant end-to-end move with a close-range finish.
The former Malaga man, who had been out of favour in the first weeks of the season under Zidane, curled in a fifth before a goal for Cristiano Ronaldo, still feeling his way back after his glittering summer with Portugal, capped the win off nicely.
Alvaro Morata's clever angled pass allowed the Portuguese to burst between a posse of Betis players who he kept at bay before burying a low shot beyond Adan.
Alvaro Cejudo's goal 10 minutes into the second half was mere consolation for Gus Poyet's Betis side.
Yannick Carrasco hat trick helped Atletico Madrid recover from the shock of conceding an early goal to hammer Granada 7-1 at the Vicente Calderon.
Isaac Cuenca's smart volley briefly put the unbeaten start of Diego Simeone's side in jeopardy but a mistake by Granada goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa paved the way for Carrasco's first, and his second gave them the half-time lead.
His third killed off the hopes of Granada, who remain rooted to the bottom of LaLiga, but it swiftly became an embarrassing rout as substitute Nico Gaitan grabbed a brace with Angel Correa and Tiago also on target in an accomplished Atletico display.
Barca now trail Sevilla by one point after Pablo Sarabia produced a stunning late winner for Jorge Sampaoli's side as they survived a two-goal comeback to beat Leganes 3-2 and register a first away league success since May 2015.
The midfielder curled home from 20 yards with five minutes remaining to end Los Rojiblancos' 22-game search for victory on the road in La Liga.
Quick-fire strikes from Leganes pair David Timor and Alexander Szymanowski had looked set to extend the winless run after goals from Franco Vazquez and Samir Nasri had put the visitors in control at Estadio Municipal de Butarque.