Betis’ run of four straight wins came to an end when they lost at Getafe on Monday night. Getafe boss Luis Garcia played all three of his big summer signings –Pedro Leon. Dani Guiza and Diego Castro and it was the ex-Sporting man who rewarded the team’s fine first half performance with a goal that gave them their first win of the campaign and lifts them out of the bottom three.

Red cards

Unbeaten Llevant continued their great start to the season with a 3-1 win over Espanyol, which takes them up to third place on 11 points. Espanyol were handed two red cards –for Pandiani and Javi Lopez – and conceded two penalties in what was their third away defeat on the run. Valencia were unable to build on their good performance against Barça last week when they suffered their first defeat of the campaign, going down to a Kanoute strike in Seville in a frantic match that saw three men sent off –two from Seville and one from Valencia – and Eva Banega hit the post with a penalty for the visitors. Seville are still unbeaten and are now fourth, level on points with Barça and Llevant , despite having scored only six goals in five games –just one more then Bilbao for instance and 16 less than Barça.

Malaga miss chance to go top

Real Madrid and Malaga are both a point behind Barça, with the Andalucians unable to get beyond a goalless draw in Zaragoza and Madrid beating Rayo 6-2, with Ronaldo getting a hat trick. A win for Pellegrini’s team could have taken them top, but some fine saves by Zaragoza keeper Roberto and a gritty all round performance kept the Costa del Sol big spenders at bay and they remain in sixth place, level on 10 points with Madrid and Valencia.

Mid table for Mallorca

Mallorca took advantage of Real Sociedad hitting the woodwork on three separate occasions to run out 2-1 winners at the Iberostar Stadium and both sides are now in mid-table on six and seven points respectively, with Osasuna continuing their recovery from their Camp Nou thrashing with a 1-1 draw in Granada, also on six.

Sporting and Racing fought out a goalless draw in Gijon, which did neither side much good, though it did give Sporting their first point of the campaign ahead of next week’s visit by Barça. Manolo Preciado’s team stay bottom with Bilbao only one point above them after drawing 1-1 with Villarreal, whilst Racing are just ahead of the Basques with three points.