Barcelona suffered their first defeat of the season at Atletico Madrid, who did their city rivals Real a massive favour with a 2-1 victory.
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Pep Guardiola's side were decimated by injuries with Carlos Puyol their only regular defender starting the match.
Atletico attacked from the off and were rewarded inside nine minutes when Jose Antonio Reyes beat two players before sliding an inch perfect ball behind the defence for Diego Forlan. The striker made no mistake.
Simao made it 2-0 less than a quarter of an hour later as he drilled a free-kick into the net from the edge of the area. Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulled a goal back on 27 minutes, slotting home at the far post from a corner but Atletico held on to record a famous win.
Barcelona are now just two points clear of Real Madrid in second, having played the same number of games.
Sevilla capped a productive week with a stuttering 1-0 win against Osasuna which moved them back into the Champions League qualifying spots.
But while it may have been a three-point haul for the Andalusians, it was another wholly unconvincing performance. Diego Capel whipped in the centre and Fabiano got ahead of his marker to flash a header past Ricardo, which proved the only goal of the game.
Fernando Soriano struck an injury-time equaliser to salvage a point for Almeria and heap more frustration on a Getafe side who will be keen to put this week behind them.
It looked like Getafe were going to bounce back from the disappointment of this week's cup defeat with a three-point haul, though, as goals from Javi Casquero and Roberto Soldado saw them leading 2-1 heading into the final minutes.
However, it was not to be as Soriano's 92nd-minute equaliser saved lowly Almeria and continued their decent run under new coach Juan Manuel Lillo, who has now lost just one game in seven since replacing Hugo Sanchez during the winter break.
Malaga took advantage of Racing Santander's cup hangover as they steamrollered the sorry Cantabrians at El Sardinero.
Racing looked tired from the outset in this game and Malaga took advantage, cruising to a comfortable victory thanks to goals from Weligton, Felipe Caicedo and Victor Obinna. And Racing's misery was compounded by the late dismissal of striker Mohamed Tchite, who was shown a straight red for gesturing to the referee he needed glasses.
Espanyol secured a vital win at home to high-flying Deportivo La Coruna at Cornella to move back up to the respectability of mid-table.
Former Deportivo midfielder Joan Verdu set Mauricio Pochettino's men on their way with the all-important opener six minutes before half-time. And Jose Callejon sealed a precious win for the Barcelona-based side with the second just short of the hour mark.
Real Zaragoza produced a battling performance to claim a valuable point against relegation rivals Real Valladolid.
Jose Aurelio Gay's side had won their previous two matches to climb out of the bottom three at Valladolid's expense, but they would have been content with just a point after they were forced to fight back from a goal down and having been reduced to 10 men following Andre Herrera's 65th-minute dismissal.
Diego Costa had fired Valladolid ahead after 23 minutes before Humberto Suazo got the visitors on level terms six minutes before the break.
