Alavés were unable to keep up their run of three victories in a row, losing by a single goal to Oviedo. Alavés manager Mané decided to give Nan Ribera a start after his spectacular goal against Barcelona last week, but Kodro was still out through injury. Luis Aragonés had Nadj and Claessens back from injury for Oviedo, but he eventually opted to keep both on the bench at the start, keeping 'Chino' Losada up front, and bringing back Rabarivony for Corbo. His decision proved correct, Losada scoring the only goal of the match from Dubovsky's pass four minutes before half time. With a goal to the good, Luis left Dely Valdés in the dressing room at half time, bringing on Claessens. Mané put on Julio Salinas for Nan Ribera to try to get the goal back, but this time it could not be and Oviedo took the points. Alavés stay fifth in view of the results of teams around them.

Espanyol joined the group of front-runners on 9 points with a good victory at Sevilla by 1-2. The match was billed as Uruguay against Argentina, with six from each country playing in the respective sides. Espanyol brought back Pochettino after suspension, and gave a first game to Serrano, back after a long injury. Tamudo had also recovered from his flu sufficiently to play. The game could not have started better for Sevilla, and they were ahead within three minutes of the kick off. Greek international Tsartas, who statisticians had attributed with the most number of shots (20) in the league to date, played through a ball for Juan Carlos to finish off. Sevilla's problem however is that they cannot hold on to a lead, and once again their advantage only lasted 20 minutes, Galca converting a penalty kick after Nando was adjudged rather harshly to have brought down Tamudo. Espanyol took the lead halfway through the second half when Paraguay's Benítez broke free and took the ball around keeper Valencia. Marcos Alonso brought on Zalayeta but to no avail. Sevilla sink down to second last on three points and have still to record their first win since gaining promotion last season.