Atletico Madrid produced one of their best performances of the La Liga season to thrash Real Valladolid 3-0 on Saturday, with Memphis Depay making his debut.
The Dutch forward, signed from Barcelona on Friday, came off the bench in the second half but by then Antoine Griezmann's virtuoso display had the hosts in full control at the Metropolitano in Madrid.
The French forward produced a sublime assist for Alvaro Morata to open the scoring and then struck the second himself.
Mario Hermoso netted the third from the rebound after his header from Griezmann's free-kick was parried back into his path.
Those three goals in an 11-minute spell in the first half wrapped up the points for fourth-placed Atletico.
Diego Simeone's team have endured a tough season both in the league and also in Europe, where they were eliminated, but earned a second win in seven league games to get heading back in the right direction.
"I'm very happy, very pleased with the team's performance," Griezmann told DAZN.
"We have been doing well since the World Cup, playing with intensity, hard work, having chances up front, but we lacked a goal.
"That was largely my fault, because I was having chances but couldn't get it in. This goal will help me a lot mentally to get scoring again."
Elsewhere, Newcastle United extended their unbeaten Premier League run to a club record 15 matches and kept a sixth successive clean sheet despite being held to a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Eddie Howe's side dominated in the first half with Brazilian midfielder Joelinton twice having good chances, but they struggled to open up a dogged Palace side after the break at Selhurst Park.
Palace, who lost talisman Wilfried Zaha to a hamstring injury in the second half, came close when Jean-Philippe Mateta drew a great save from Newcastle keeper Nick Pope.
In the end a draw was just about a fair result with Newcastle moving to 39 points from 20 games, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference. Palace stay 12th with 24 points.
"We knew it would be difficult at Palace but maybe it was a missed opportunity, but it's a good point coming here," Newcastle right back Kieran Trippier said.
