Atletico Madrid returned to winning ways in style by easing past Celta Vigo in a 3-0 win to reduce the gap to league leaders Barcelona to eight points.

Diego Simeone’s side saw their six-match league winning run ended by a Lionel Messi goal in the clash between LaLiga’s top two teams at the Nou Camp last week, and Atleti struggled to break down the Celta defence for long spells of the first half.

However, Antoine Griezmann stepped up to score the opener and assisted another as the second-placed side did not look back after the restart.

The Frenchman produced a great reverse pass to find Vitolo in the penalty area, and he chipped the onrushing Ruben Blanco to double Atleti’s lead before Angel Correa rounded the scoring four minutes after coming on as a substitute with a powerful strike.

Espanyol extended their unbeaten run in LaLiga to seven games as they came from behind to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 at RCDE Stadium.

The visitors snatched a 41st-minute lead when Willian Jose fired home his fifth goal in the last six league games.

But Espanyol drew level early in the second half when Leo Baptistao latched onto a neat ball from Esteban Granero to make it 1-1.

The home side grabbed the winner in the 51st minute when Gerard Moreno was fouled in the box by Real keeper Jose Angel Moya and picked himself up to squeeze home the resulting penalty.

Las Palmas remain in the relegation places after losing 2-0 at home to Villarreal, whose victory maintains their bid for European football next season.

After a goalless first half, Carlos Bacca fired the visitors into the lead midway through the second period after being played in by Pablo Fornals.

And the Yellow Submarine made sure of the win in the last minute when Alejandro Galvez was sent off for bringing down Nicola Sansone in the area, with Sansone converting the resulting penalty.