MADRID, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona opened a four-point lead over Atletico Madrid at the top of the Liga Santander at the end of the sixth round of games at the weekend.
Ernesto Valverde made changes to his starting 11 with Aleix Vidal in the side while Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets were rested, but his side rode their luck to eventually win the Catalan derby 3-0 away to Girona to maintain their 100 percent record at the start of the season.
Barca's first two goals were scored by Girona players as Jordi Alba's 17th minute shot was deflected by Aday past Gorka Izaizoz and they double their lead three minutes after the break when Vidal's back heel to Luis Suarez evaded everyone but Gorka, who had the misfortune to put the ball into his own net.
Suarez then added Barca's third with just after 20 minutes later to seal a win which shows that while Barca are not always fluid they are adaptable and able to grind out ugly wins.
Atletico Madrid moved into second place as they continued their unbeaten start to the season at the expense of Sevilla, who had been unbeaten prior to their visit to the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
The deadlock was broken after a dull first half when Steven N' Zonzi's error in the 46th minute allowed Yannick Carrasco to round Sergio Rico and score the opening goal, while Antoine Griezmann, who produced another lively display, sealed the win with 20 minutes remaining.
Real Madrid had several players out injured and Zinedine Zidane rested Gareth Bale and Luka Modric for the trip to face Alaves, but Dani Ceballos scored twice on his first start to give them the points against a rival who have now lost their opening six games of the campaign.
Manu Garcia scored for Alaves and although Madrid wasted chances to score more goals, Alaves also saw two second half efforts from Alfonso Pedraza bounce back off the woodwork.
Sunday saw Valencia confirm their improvement as they moved up to fourth in the table with a 3-2 win in a thrilling game away to Real Sociedad.
Valencia twice took the lead through Rodrigo Moreno and Nacho Vidal, but were twice pegged back by Aritz Elustondo and Mikel Oyarzabal only for Simone Zaza to net the decisive goal for the visitors five minutes from time.
Leganes moved into the top six with a shock 2-0 win away to Las Palmas thanks to goal from Claudio Beavue and Javi Eraso, while Celta ended crisis talk with a 4-0 thrashing of Eibar in the usually difficult Ipurua Stadium.
Cabral, Pablo Hernandez Pione Sisto and Daniel Wass completed a comfortable win against a rival that was almost unrecognizable from the usually sound defensive outfit.
Getafe also scored four second half goals to claim their first home win of the season against Villarreal, who have only themselves to blame for a series of defensive blunders which allowed Angel to score twice, while Jorge Molina and Markel Bergara to also get on the score-sheet as the home team netted three goals from set pieces.
Diego Rolan and Inaki Williams both scored twice as Malaga and Athletic Club Bilbao drew 3-3 to give Malaga their first point of the season.
Athletic had led 3-1 against 10-man Malaga after Zdravko Kuzmanovic had been sent off 10 minutes after the break, but Paul Baysse and Rolan scored late goals to see honors even and probably save coach Michel Gonzalez's job.
Deportivo la Coruna's Pepe Mel is under pressure again after his side were thrashed 4-1 away to Espanyol. Gerard Moreno scored twice for the home side, who had taken a 2-0 lead through Leo Baptistao and an Alejandro Arribas own goal.
