SEVILLE, Spain — Sevilla moved back to the top of La Liga on Sunday as they capitalized on the stuttering form of their rivals by beating Real Valladolid 1-0. Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona all failed to win on Saturday as Real were beaten 3-0 by Eibar before Atletico and Barca played out a 1-1 draw at the Wanda Metropolitano.

The way was open for Sevilla to take advantage and they made no mistake, Andre Silva continuing his excellent start to the season by heading in the winner at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

They certainly rode their luck, twice needing VAR to deny Real Valladolid an equalizer, with the first cancelation particularly fortunate. Enes Unal’s strike was ruled out as the offside Toni Villa was deemed to be obstructing the goalkeeper’s view.

Victory puts Sevilla one point above Barcelona at the summit, two clear of Atletico and six ahead of Real. After a slow start to the season, Pablo Machin´s side are now unbeaten in seven games in all competitions, while in the league, they have lost only once, to Barca, in their last nine.

Real Valladolid, now owned by Ronaldo, the former Brazil striker, had been in excellent form too in recent weeks but three games without a win means they drop to 12th.

Silva´s goal was his eighth of the season and relatively straightforward as he peeled away at the back post to head Pablo Sarabia´s cross in off the post. Sarabia had done well to make space with a sharp turn inside the box.

La Real pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half and twice thought they had it. Unal, on as a substitute, rifled home on the hour but Villa, standing offside and close to the goalkeeper, was judged to be interfering with play.

The second decision was more clear-cut, Unal firing in a rebound from close range but this time it was him that had strayed offside. Sevilla could have had a second, with Wissam Ben Yedder twice going close while Sarabia forced a strong save from Jordi Masip with a long-range drive. In the end, one was enough.

Atletico Madrid came within a whisker of their first league win over Barcelona in eight years on Saturday only for Ousmane Dembele to dash their hopes with a dramatic equalizer in injury-time.

Diego Costa looked to have decided a dreary contest at the Wanda Metropolitano when he headed in his first La Liga goal since February with 13 minutes left. Atletico would have gone top of the table but instead, Barca produced another fightback as Dembele, on as a substitute, slid home a cool finish in the 90th minute to earn the visitors a 1-1 draw.

Diego Simeone was asked after the match what his team had lacked. "Four minutes," he said, grinning. Certainly, the relief was palpable in the celebrations of the luminous yellow shirts in the corner but perhaps just as grateful were Real Madrid, beaten 3-0 by Eibar earlier in the day.

Santiago Solari had proven the perfect caretaker but his debut as permanent coach ended in a disastrous, and deserved, defeat at Ipurua. Madrid's only consolation was that neither Atletico nor Barca were able to secure the win that would have pulled them a further three points away.

Costa almost had it, scoring his first goal in 18 league games to surely end Atletico's joyless run against Barca, which stretches back to February 2010.

But Dembele, dropped by coach Ernesto Valverde for the defeat to Real Betis before the international break, found some redemption with a clinical finish when it mattered most.

"It is not like in other years when Barca or Real Madrid had leads of 15, 20 points," Simeone said. "This is much more entertaining for the fans."

For all the noise surrounding Dembele off the pitch, his goals have now given Barcelona seven points this season, more than any other player in the division. "He has things other players don't have," Valverde said. "We must help him to get that talent out."

If Solari was watching on he might have breathed a small sigh of relief. Four wins while in temporary charge had earned him a contract until 2021 but against Eibar, Real reverted to the kind of chaotic display that earned Julen Lopetegui the sack.

Defeat also brought into focus the mindset of his players, after their captain Sergio Ramos faced allegations of an anti-doping violation on Friday night from German magazine Der Spiegel. Both the club and Ramos have denied any breach.

"It is not about finding people to blame," Solari said afterwards. "Everything is fixable. We had won four straight games, done some things very well, and we have to get back to that."

Eibar, meanwhile, climb to eighth, a reward for their first ever victory over Real Madrid at the 11th attempt, inside their tiny 7,083-capacity stadium.

Ramos attacked Der Spiegel´s claims as "lies" after the match but allegations he failed to declare the correct medication after the Champions League final in 2017, cannot have helped his side’s performance.

On their display, Ramos said: "When you don’t match an opponent, you become a bad team. You have to be critical when you lack intensity. Our game was reflected by the score."

Solari must now rally his players ahead of Tuesday's Champions League game against Roma, when the winner of Group G is likely to be decided. — AFP