Barcelona won 1-0 for the fifth time this year to go 11 points clear at the top, but Real Madrid will restart their pursuit of the leaders fresh from having won the Club World Cup on Saturday, with Vinicius Junior making it 16 goals for the season.
Elsewhere Memphis Depay got off the mark for Atletico Madrid, Andoni Iraola’s Rayo Vallecano stuttered, and Valencia’s downward spiral continued.
Here, Sportsmail pens 10 things we learned from this week’s La Liga action.
Barcelona DID buy the right Chelsea defender
When they bought Andreas Christensen in the summer and Real Madrid signed Antonio Rudiger, most commentators believed they had signed the wrong man. It was the German’s no-nonsense defending that they needed.
While Rudiger has struggled at Real Madrid, Christensen is now one half of the best central defensive partnership in Spain. He’s no-nonsense enough, and he can play the way Xavi wants him to.
Araujo is Barca’s new Puyol
It helps Christensen that he’s alongside the man one Spanish TV pundit last week called the best defender in the world at one-on-one situations.
Another commented: ‘He is often the one that breaks the offside trap, but it doesn’t matter because he then wins the duel with the striker.’
He’s stronger and quicker than most and where his body can’t get him to, his Carles Puyol-like spirit will.
‘1-0 to Barcelona’ is Xavi’s best achievement to date
All well and good playing the Barca way, but unless you do it as well as they did under Pep Guardiola, it’s not always enough to win the league.
Sunday’s win over Villarreal was Barcelona’s seventh 1-0 victory of the season. Under Xavi they have learned to grind out results and it’s why they are clear at the top.
Memphis can be the new Costa
Okay, so he’s not the same player but Diego Simeone said, when he signed, that he wanted the former Manchester United, Lyon and Barcelona striker to give the team what Costa gave them.
Costa scored the only goal in so many one-nil wins, so his winner on Sunday was reminiscent of the 34-year-old. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that he knows how to finish – he netted 12 for Barca last season and 20 in his best campaign for Lyon.
Iraola affected by Leeds talk
Rayo had an off day allowing a 1-0 lead to slip against 10-man Getafe. How much the below par performance had to do with Leeds United twice asking head coach Andoni Iraola to sign for them last week is hard to say.
The fact that there was such disappointment at the defeat - which subsequently dropped them five points from the Champions League places - underlines the incredible strides they have made under Iraola. No wonder Leeds want him.
Vinicius delivers in the big games
Not everyone was in league action last weekend – Madrid’s game with Elche was postponed to Wednesday because they were away in Rabat winning the Club World Cup.
Just as Vinicius had scored to win them the Champions League final – and so put them into this competition – he scored in the semi and got two in the final to help them win it. His big game reliability is already well developed and he is still only 22.
Ancelotti still needs to win a ‘proper’ trophy.
Carlo Ancelotti has now won nine trophies at Real Madrid and the talk after the Club World Cup victory in Rabat was of how he is playing a part in all the plans for next season.
He’s too old and wise to get caught up in the idea that he will definitely see out the last year of his contract.
If he fails to win one of the other three trophies - Spanish Cup, League or Champions League, then winning the UEFA Super Cup and Sunday’s final will be seen as ‘not really counting’ - and there will be calls for Madrid to find a new coach. Madrid have won 17 of the last 18 finals they have played, by the way. Extraordinary.
Valencia needs to unite behind the team
There were 15,000 supporters protesting the ownership of Peter Lim before they game, and many of them stayed outside until minute 19 (the club was founded in 1919) to make their point.
They missed Valencia taking the lead on minute 17 and then saw them allow it to slip away.
Two things are clear – Valencia have a huge battle on their hands to stay up and the owner is not selling, so from now on everyone has to be behind the team from the first minute.
Ilaix can play his part
Valencia are in the bottom three for the first time in the second half of the season for only the second time in their history – the last time was 1986 when they went down.
It will probably be the youngsters who keep them up, and 20-year-old Ilaix Moriba will be vital if they are to do it. He has lost his way since breaking through at Barcelona and looking the part alongside Lionel Messi.
A lack of patience was behind a change of agent and club but the huge talent is still there and he was excellent, albeit in defeat, against Athletic Bilbao at the weekend.
Gil is back, he should probably never have left
Bryan Gil scored his first goal for Sevilla since his return on loan from Spurs. The 22-year-old will hope that the move can be made permanent at the end of the season.
His 25m euros move to Tottenham suited the Spanish club financially, but they were losing a homegrown talent and he was losing the chance to develop properly in an environment that was familiar to him.
It has not worked for him at Spurs; it can at Sevilla if he stays.