Defeat for Barcelona in a seven-goal thriller at Celta Vigo and a fourth straight draw for Real Madrid allowed Atletico Madrid to move top of La Liga.
Here we look at five things we learned from week seven in the Spanish top-flight.
Aspas returns to haunt Barca
Iago Aspas scored twice as Celta inflicted Luis Enrique's heaviest ever defeat at Barca boss 4-1 on his return to Balaidos last season. Little over a year on, a Celta-inspired Aspas hit their former boss for four once more in wild 4-3 win. The former Liverpool striker was involved in all three of Celta's first-half goals in a 11-minute spell that swung the game in the hosts' favour. His brilliant pass teed up Pione Sisto for the opener before Aspas drilled home the second himself and pressured Jeremy Mathieu to turn the ball into his own goal for Celta's third.
Modric magic missed
For the second consecutive home game Madrid were without Luka Modric and just as against Villarreal 10 days ago, they paid for a lacklustre first-half display in a 1-1 draw. The European champions will have to learn to deal with the Croatian's absence quickly as he underwent knee surgery on Sunday morning that is set to see him miss the next month.
More than even Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale, Modric has been the key to Madrid's play for the past two years. A conductor and creator in midfield, the former Spurs man is capable of launching Real quickly on the counter-attack or unlock the deep-lying defence Eibar employed at the Bernabeu. In his absence, Zinedine Zidane needs a sudden upturn in form from Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez and Isco in the coming weeks to get Madrid's season back on track.
Atletico depth reaches new heights
Almost two years ago to the day, Atletico travelled to Mestalla days after a draining 1-0 win over Juventus in the Champions League and promptly found themselves 3-0 down inside 13 minutes. One of the most impressive aspects of a 2-0 win despite missing two penalties at Valencia was that this time Diego Simeone's men had the depth to shrug off a Champions League hangover just four days after beating Bayern Munich.
Yannick Carrasco and Fernando Torres came off the bench to help set up Antoine Griezmann's opener, whilst Kevin Gameiro -- who hadn't started in either of Atletico's last two games -- slotted home the second in stoppage time. The roar of delight let out by Simeone at fulltime showed his belief that Atletico can wrestle the title away from Madrid and Barca once more and they have a squad to back up that ambition.
Alves burdens penalty legend
If anyone deserved not to be on a losing side this weekend it was probably Valencia 'keeper Diego Alves, who saved two penalties from Griezmann and Gabi, but still couldn't prevent Los Che falling to a fifth defeat in seven games this season. Alves's penalty record borders on the unbelievable.
The Brazilian has now saved 22 of the 45 spot-kicks he has faced in Spanish football, whilst another two failed to even hit the target. Griezmann is just the latest superstar denied as Alves has previously stopped penalties from Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Diego Costa.
Espanyol project false starts
Only Espanyol's equally miserable start to the season keeps Valencia out of the relegation zone. Hopes were high for a European challenge from Barcelona's second side backed by Chinese millions and having hired former Atletico boss Quique Sanchez Flores as coach. However, a 0-0 draw at home to Villarreal leaves Espanyol with just six points from their opening seven games and Flores the latest La Liga coach in the firing line.
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