Neymar and Luis Suarez once again shone for Barcelona in Lionel Messi's absence as Barca beat Villarreal 3-0 on Sunday to move three points clear at the top of La Liga.
Atletico Madrid remained in the title hunt thanks to Antoine Griezmann's 93rd-minute winner as they squeezed out a 1-0 win over Sporting Gijon to stay four points behind the leaders.
European champions Barcelona were frustrated by a solid first-half display from Villarreal, but finally made the breakthrough on the hour mark when Neymar slotted home Sergio Busquets’s through ball.
Neymar then stood aside to let Suarez seal the three points from the penalty spot after Munir El Haddadi had been brought down by Jaume Costa.
Read more: Andy Mitten on Barcelona's Neymar and Luis Suarez picking up for the injured Lionel Messi
And the Brazilian rounded off a sensational display as he volleyed home a stunning third five minutes from time.
Real Madrid were left rooted in second after a 3-2 loss at Sevilla later on Sunday.
Barca’s next outing comes against Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on November 21.
“I am happy with what I am giving the team, but I still think I can improve more,” Neymar told Canal Plus.
“As a team we all have to keep growing, but now we can rest and think about el clasico.”
Between them Suarez and Neymar have compensated for Messi’s injury lay-off with knee ligament damage by scoring Barca’s last 17 league goals. The Catalan club have dropped just three points since the Argentine went off injured against Las Palmas six weeks ago.
Villarreal managed to limit the supply to the star South American duo for the first 45 minutes. Jeremy Mathieu had Barca’s best chance when his low drive at the end of a flowing counter-attack was saved by Alphonse Areola.
The visitors also had their chances on the break as Roberto Soldado pulled a shot just wide when well-placed on the edge of the area before Claudio Bravo made a brave save at the feet of Samu Castillejo in the final action of the half.
Both Neymar and Suarez were booked within the first two minutes of the second-half for taking their protests towards referee Clos Gomez too far as nerves began to spread around the Camp Nou.
However, they finally found a way through when Busquets intercepted Bruno Soriano’s pass and freed Neymar to fire home at the near post.
Only another great save from Areola prevented Andres Iniesta from doubling Barca’s advantage moments later.
However, the French keeper was helpless when Costa dived in on Munir and Neymar, who had taken Barca’s last four penalties, allowed Suarez to score his 13th goal of the season.
The best was yet to come from Neymar, though, as he collected Suarez’s pass and lifted the ball over Costa before turning to fire home on the volley.
At the Vicente Calderon, Griezmann came to Atletico’s rescue just in time as they laboured against a well-organised Sporting side after their 12,000-kilometre round trip to Kazakh champions Astana in the Champions League in midweek.
Jan Oblak kept the hosts in the game with fine saves from Alen Halilovic and Jony either side of half time.
And Griezmann sparked wild celebrations from Atletico manager Diego Simeone when he stopped to nod home Diego Godin’s flick-on deep into stoppage time.
Athletic Bilbao moved into the top half of the table with their fifth consecutive win as 21-year-old sensation Inaki Williams struck a wonder goal in a 3-1 win over Espanyol.
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