More home comfort as Valencia lead the way

Valencia maintained their flawless home record to move two points clear at the top of the Spanish first division with a 4-0 thrashing of new boys Numancia on Sunday.

Last season Valencia were a soft touch at their Mestalla stadium losing nine times, but the 2004 league champions appear to have made it a fortress once again with four home wins from four in the league.

Predictably David Villa, who scored the winner in Spain's 2010 World Cup qualifying win over Belgium in midweek, opened the scoring after just four minutes.

The Spanish international also netted the final goal of the game on 89 minutes with his eighth goal of the campaign to stretch his lead at the top of the goalscoring charts.

Juan Mata (72 min) and Vicente (83) were also on target as Unai Emery's Valencia cruised to victory.

The Kings Cup holders nudge Villarreal, the only other unbeaten team in the league, from the top going two points clear of last season's runners-up.

Real Madrid are three points behind the leaders in third after their last gasp 2-1 derby win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday.

Barcelona, buoyed by last week's 6-1 demolition of Atletico, can move level on points with Real providing they can defeat Athletic Bilbao at San Mames later on Sunday.

Bilbao is a tough place to visit and Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said his team needed to be on top of their game.

“We have tired players coming back from international duty and we have to be very switched on because to win at San Mames you have to play well if not you don't come away with anything,” explained Guardiola.

Sevilla have started the season well and can close to within two points of Valencia if they overcome Almeria in Sunday's late match.

Almeria are sixth and hope to take advantage of an injury stricken Sevilla team who have four strikers injured in Ernesto Chevanton, Frederic Kanoute, Arouna Kone and Luis Fabiano.

“We are missing a lot of players but there are no excuses and we will put out a good team,” promised Sevilla coach Manolo Jimenez.

Neighbours Real Betis finally got their first win of the season climbing out of the bottom three with a 3-0 triumph over Real Mallorca.

That means Osasuna are the only team yet to win in the new season and new coach Jose Antonio Camacho, former Spain national manager, had a difficult start losing 2-1 at promoted Sporting Gijon.

At 1-1 the game could have gone either way but Osasuna had Roversio Rodrigues sent off for bringing down Mate Bilic in the penalty area.

Bilic converted the penalty and Osasuna drop into the relegation zone while Sporting jump to 16th.