Gerard Pique and Carles Alena were on target to help a below-par Barcelona to a 2-0 win over Villarreal and send them top of LaLiga.
The Catalan giants leapfrog Sevilla to the summit but Pablo Machin's side will reclaim top spot if they beat Alaves in Sunday's late game.
Barca – who had taken just one point from their previous two league games – were far from their best against their lowly opponents and were indebted to Pique's second league goal of the season for a 36th-minute lead.
Ernesto Valverde's were insipid in the second half, but did score a second three minutes from time as substitute Alena latched onto Lionel Messi's pass to clip over Sergio Asenjo for his first LaLiga goal.