Atlético Madrid are already looking good for promotion this year, and they took top spot with maximum points after a comfortable 0-3 victory over Basque side Eibar. Defensive errors let Atlético in three times in a quarter of an hour period around half time, with new signing from Valencia Diego Alonso scoring twice before the break and ex Mallorca player Stankovic adding a third with the second half only a minute old. Eibar's best efforts came from on loan Real Sociedad players Jauregui and Aldeondo, with the former hitting the bar and the latter forcing a great save out of Mono Burgos. Atlético's young striker Fernando Torres was playing his last game before joining the Spanish under 17 squad for their world cup tournament in Trinidad and Tobago, and he will miss the next four games.

Two of the newly promoted teams Burgos and Xerez surprisingly join Atlético on six points at the top of the table. Burgos hung on to beat another of the teams who came up this year, Gimnastic Tarragona thanks to an early goal from César Esteban. Nástic's resistance ended when Manolo was sent off in the second half. Xerez put their troubles off the field behind them as they went on to win 0-1 at Extremadura. Pineda got the only goal for Bernd Schuster's team before the break. Meanwhile the battle between controversial club president Luis Oliver and town mayor Pedro Pacheco over ownership of the club goes on, with Pacheco handing documents over to police which he claims will end up with Oliver spending some time at his majesty's pleasure.

One of the promotion favourites Salamanca moved up to fourth place with a 2-0 victory over last week's early leaders Albacete. Two goals in a five minute period in the first half from Nan Ribera and Makukula sealed it for them. They are now on four points, level with Racing Ferrol who got their first victory with a 2-0 win over Murcia. Both goals were scored by their new signing from Málaga, Ismael. The game was played in Lugo as the new pitch at Ferrol was not yet ready, with around 4,000 fans making the trip to the Angel Carro stadium.

The big match on Sunday however was between two of the relegated teams, Racing Santander and Oviedo. Racing took the lead through Vivar Dorado before the interval, but just when it looked as if they would take the three points, Geni popped to steal an undeserved draw for the visitors. Both have now drawn their opening two matches and appear to be having trouble adapting to the category. Leganés and Elche also recorded their second draws of the season in a game which was inexplicably played in the midday sun in Madrid. Inevitably the match ended goal-less, and Elche fans have still not seen a goal in 180 minutes of football.

The other relegated team Numancia are doing even worse than the other two, and they have only picked up one point after losing 1-0 to Recreativo Huelva. New signing Raúl Molina headed the goal for the home side on the hour mark. Recreativo were one of four teams to win after losing last week, and they were joined by Levante, Sporting and Jaén. Levante beat Córdoba 3-1 with a brilliant individualist goal by Miguel Angel rounding things off. It could be the young midfielder's last game for the Valencia based side, with a move to Málaga due to take place this week. Javi Peña (who came back from injury and only lasted 15 minutes before going off again) and Kaiku put them two up early on, with on loan Atlético Madrid player Lawal pulling one back before half time from a free kick. Both teams ended with ten men after Lima for the home side and Soria for the visitors were given red cards late in the game by an over-zealous referee.

Sporting Gijon are having to get by with a team of youngsters, with Tcheryshev the latest in a long list to leave the club this week in order to shore up their finances. They youngsters did them proud though with a 3-0 victory over Badajoz, with goals from Juan (2) and Isma. They may have a couple of reinforcements joining soon however, with Real Madrid's Dorado and Deportivo's David Pirri due to move to Asturias on loan. Jaén won their local derby with newly promoted Poli Ejido, who are already looking like candidates for relegation. The home side were cruising with a quarter of an hour to go after Milosevic had given them the lead, and although the visitors levelled the scores with a controversial penalty, goals from Jurado and Rueda gave them a 3-1 victory. Ejido are the only club without a point and prop up the table, with Eibar, Murcia and Córdoba in the other three relegation spots on goal average.