Valencia began the Cesare Prandelli era with a 2-1 win at Sporting Gijon to climb out of the La Liga relegation zone.
Prandelli, the former Italy coach, replaced the sacked Pako Ayestaran after Valencia’s dreadful start to the season left them in the bottom three.
Prandelli has plenty of talent at his disposal and that was underlined by Mario Suárez’s seventh-minute goal after good work from Rodrigo and Dani Parejo.
Carlos Castro levelled after 65 minutes but Suárez soon struck the winner when a misdirected header from the Sporting midfielder Sergio Álvarez fell into his path and the former Atletico Madrid and Watford man made no mistake.
Villarreal moved into fifth spot by thrashing Celta Vigo 5-0. Roberto Soriano scored twice in the opening 12 minutes, his first goals since joining from Sampdoria in August.
Cédric Bakambu added a third before the break from Nicola Sansone’s pass and Daniel Wass put through his own goal from a corner just after half-time.
Celta’s misery was completed when Sergi Gómez was sent off for a second bookable offence three minutes from time and Manuel Trigueros added a fifth in stoppage time after Alexandre Pato’s header had hit a post.
Athletic Bilbao claimed the Basque bragging rights with a 3-2 victory over Real Sociedad at San Mames. Sociedad had not lost this fixture since March 2012 and they seemed well placed again when David Zurutuza fired them into a 16th-minute lead.
Iker Muniain levelled six minutes after the break and goals from Aritz Aduriz (60) –his fifth in six games and 21st of the calendar year – and Inaki Williams (72) put Athletic in command.
Iñigo Martínez’s goal seven minutes from time set up a tense finish but the hosts held on to move within three points of the summit shared by the Madrid neighbours Atlético and Real.
Málaga’s Roberto Rosales struck late to secure a 1-1 draw at Alaves. The Brazilian striker Deyverson’s fourth goal in seven matches had given Alaves a ninth-minute lead which they should have built on in a dominant first-half performance.
Marcos Llorente, Édgar Méndez and Deyverson had chances to extend Alaves’ lead but their failure to take them ended with Rosales equalising five minutes from time.
Both sides finished with 10 men after Alaves’ Theo Hernández and the Málaga midfielder Juanpi were sent off in the final seconds.
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