Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale were the stars as Real Madrid defeated Athletic Club Bilbao 5-0 in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Spanish Primera Liga football

Bale, who had been out of form in recent matches, served three goals for Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, who scored five goals between them with Ronaldo scoring yet another hat-trick here .

In other matches, Sevilla continued their excellent start to the season to destroy Deportivo la Coruna 4-1. M’Bia scored twice, with Carlos Bacca and Vitolo, to give Unai Emery’s side a comfortable win.

Villarreal also kept pace with a 3-1 triumph away to Celta Vigo, thanks in part to two goals from Mou Gomez, while Espanyol took advantage of Real Sociedad’s poor moment to move into eighth place with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Lucas and Cristian Stauni.

Valencia strengthened their grip on second place with a 3-1 win over defeated third place Atletico Madrid in the Mestalla Stadium.

Atletico got off to a dreadful start after just five minutes when Joao Miranda headed a speculative long ball past goalkeeper Miguel Angel Moya.

Two minutes later Andre Gomez beat three defenders to score with a left foot shot, while Nicolas Otamendi headed Valencia’s third after just 13 minutes.

Mario Mandzukic gave Atletico a lifeline on 28 minutes but Atletico’s options disappeared when Guillermo Siqueira saw a 45th minute penalty saved by Valencia’s Diego Alves.

Eibar and Levante served up a thrilling 3-3 draw in a rainy Ipurua Stadium as Eibar came back from 0-2 down and 2-3 down to salvage a last minute point.

Former Eibar forward, Jose Luis Morales and Camarasa put Levante 0-2 ahead before the break before Eibar fought back through Javi Lara and a magnificent volley from Saul Berjon.

Victor Casadesus put Levante back ahead with 10 minutes remaining, but Federico Piovaccari, who had seen a goal wrongly ruled out for offside 15 minutes previously, made it 3-3 with virtually the last kick of the game.

In the late kick offs a controversial penalty gave Malaga a 2-1 win at home to Granada, while Tomar Hemed’s late header assured a 2-2 draw between Almeria and Elche.