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Bernd Schuster's team beat Recreativo Huelva 2-0 at home, with late goals from Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Gonzalo Higuain.

 The latest win confirms Real Madrid's best start since 1991, even though they again failed to play well.

 They now have 19 points from seven games, two points more than Barcelona, who caned Atletico Madrid 3-0 with goals from Deco, Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez.

 Villarreal, for their part, fall down to joint third with Valencia, on 15 points, after surprisingly losing 3-2 away to Osasuna.

 Schuster was chosen to replace Fabio Capello on the Real bench in order to improve the quality of play. However, this has still not happened - though the results have been excellent.

 Huelva had their chances in the Bernabeu but lacked punch in attack.

 The tight game did not come to life until the 73rd minute, when Raul Gonzalez set up Van Nistelrooy. The Dutch hitman calmly rounded Huelva keeper Stefano Sorrentino to make it 1-0.

 Real substitute Gonzalo Higuain had a goal disallowed for offside, but then made it 2-0 in the 90th minute after being set up perfectly by Guti.

 "We are finishing our matches really well," said Van Nistelrooy, "though we should really have gone ahead earlier."

   That is exactly what Barcelona did, against luckless Atletico. The visitors had made a good start in the Camp Nou, but in the 16th minute reserve keeper Christian Abbiati fumbled a Messi centre - and Deco tapped in the gift to make it 1-0.

 Just three minutes later Messi added a classy second, after playing a clever one-two with Ronaldinho.

 Messi is now league top scorer with seven goals, two ahead of fellow Argentine Sergio Aguero of Atletico, who had a dull game.

 Messi almost scored again on the break in the 85th minute, but Abbiati managed to push his shot onto the post.

 In the 89th minute Barca sub Giovanni dos Santos centred from the left for the incoming Xavi to make it 3-0.

 "Atletico played well this evening," said Xavi generously. "But we took our chances better than they did."

   The battle for "La Liga" is shaping up to be a two-horse race after the defeats suffered by Villarreal, Valencia and Sevilla.

 Villarreal took an early lead away to Osasuna through Giuseppe Rossi but ended upon the wrong end of a 4-2 scoreline, which leaves them two points behind Barca and three behind Real.

 Valencia are level with Villarreal on 15 points after Saturday's 1-2 meltdown against Espanyol, in which Spain striker David Villa limped of with a twisted ankle.

 Their win in Valencia takes Espanyol up to fifth, on 13 points.

 Sevilla, for their part, suffered their fourth successive "Liga" defeat, 0-1 at home to Deportivo Coruna.

 Sevilla dominated from start to finish but lost to a late sucker- punch from Riki, who had been perfecttly set up by Andres Guardado.

 The UEFA Cup winners are now sixth from bottom, with just six points.

 In Sunday's other games, Zaragoza thrashed bottom team Levante 3-0 - with two goals from Ricardo Oliveira - Mallorca came from behind to beat troubled Getafe 4-2, Almeria battled out a 1-1 draw in Bilbao and Murcia were held to a 0-0 draw by Betis.

 The weekend's games come to an end later on Sunday when Racing Santander take on lowly Valladolid. dpa