5 things we learned in La Liga this weekend

Madrid - Real Madrid's lead at the top of La Liga continues to grow as it edged past Sporting Gijon, whilst Barcelona was thoroughly outplayed in a 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad.

Here are five things we learned from week 13 in La Liga:

Barca's Sociedad curse continues

After years of feeling hard done by on its trips to San Sebastian, Barca finally had luck on its side despite its winless streak at Anoeta stretching to eight games over the past nine years.

Barca boss Luis Enrique described the result as a "miracle" given Sociedad's dominance against an unrecognisable Catalan outfit.

One moment of magic as Neymar teed up Lionel Messi to salvage the champion, but it will need a huge improvement to cut into Real Madrid's six-point lead at the top when the two meet in El Clasico next weekend.

Real Madrid routinely winning ugly

Real was also off colour on Saturday but extends its gap despite a performance so bad even coach Zinedine Zidane admitted it was one to "forget" as "a bit of everything went wrong."

A 2-1 win over a Sporting Gijon side now 10 games without a win was secured only thanks to a missed Duje Cop penalty 12 minutes from time.

Yet, in a recurring theme of the season Madrid bagged another three points to go along with performances against Celta Vigo, Athletic Bilbao and Leganes where victory has been secured without a stellar display.

Whether Zinedine Zidane's men are merely showing the resistance of champions or are headed for a fall after a 31-game unbeaten run will be truly tested next weekend.

Old school Atletico

Back-to-back league defeats for the first time in four years and a first ever run of five La Liga games without a clean sheet forced Atletico boss Diego Simeone to go back to basics.

The Argentine's success over the past five years has been built on rock solid foundations and in attempting to develop a more attacking edge this season some of that solidity has been lost.

For a 2-0 Champions League win over PSV in midweek and Sunday's 3-0 romp at Osasuna, veteran Tiago was recalled to the midfield, whilst Jose Maria Gimenez renewed his partnership with Diego Godin at the heart of the defence.

Two wins and two clean sheets have Atletico back to what it knows best under Simeone.

Wheels come off at Villarreal

Other than Real Madrid, Villarreal was the last team to taste defeat in La Liga this season.

But since a nine-game unbeaten run came to an end at Eibar on Oct. 30, it has lost three of its last four.

Villarreal's realistic hopes of Champions League football for next season is to beat out high-flying Sevilla to fourth place, but Sunday's shock 2-0 home defeat by Alaves leaves it already five points adrift of the Europa League holder.

Hapless bottom four salvaging Valencia

Valencia was beaten again, 2-1 at Sevilla, but remains two points above the relegation zone thanks to the incompetence of those below them.

Defeats for Deportivo La Coruna, Sporting Gijon, Osasuna and Granada this weekend means they have won just a combined five of 52 Liga matches this season, the last of which came on October 17.