Rival watch: Villarreal new leaders as FC Barcelona climb back up to second

Rival watch: Villarreal new leaders as FC Barcelona climb back up to second

Celta and Real Madrid only draw and drop below the Catalans while Sevilla claim first win to move off the bottom of the table

[[DES_1]]After dropping from first to fourth in the wake of their defeat in Vigo last week, Barça’s 2-1 win over Las Palmas on Saturday bounced them back up to second when two of the three sides that had replaced them at the top of the table, Real Madrid and Celta, could only draw.

Villarreal were the only one of the leading trio to win this weekend, 1-0 at home to Atlético Madrid, so it is them who now top the table for the first time in club history. The Yellow Submarine have 16 points, one more than Barça. Leo Baptistao scored the only goal of the game, and the result also means that Atlético miss out on a chance to draw level with Barça and instead remain in fifth.

Real Madrid were held at home by Málaga, who very much had goalkeeper Carlos Kameni to thank for an impressive 0-0 draw, while Celta drew 1-1 at Eibar, Aspas grabbing a 79th minute equaliser after the Basques had taken the lead after just four minutes. Deportivo beat Espanyol 3-0 at Riazor, and replace the pericos in sixth place.

Sevilla win at last

Barça’s next Liga fixture takes them to Seville (Saturday October 3 at 4.00pm CET). The side Barça defeated to win the European Super Cup have got their Liga campaign off to a torrid start, but they finally chalked up their first win of the season on Saturday by beating Rayo 3-2. Although goals from Gameiro and N'Zonzi seemed to have put Sevilla on fine course at the Sánchez Pizjuán, Rayo got it back to 2-2 before Konoplyanka produced a winner four minutes from the end. After finally getting away from the bottom of the table, Unai Emery’s side now face a huge midweek trip to Juventus in the Champions League before hosting Barcelona just three days later.

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