Ten-man Celta Vigo suffered their first defeat of the season as Moi Gomez's quickfire brace helped Villarreal to a 3-1 victory at Balaidos.
Gomez struck in the 32nd and 34th minutes before Joaquin Larrivey's reply a minute prior to the interval.
The hosts then had Andreu Fontas dismissed for a second bookable offence with four minutes of normal time to go, and a stoppage-time Mario effort subsequently wrapped up the three points for the Yellow Submarine, who are up to seventh in the Primera Division table, a place and a point behind Celta.
After Giovani dos Santos sent an early free-kick over for the visitors, Celta looked to apply some pressure, with Michael Krohn-Delhi shooting too high, Hugo Mallo's header going wide and a Nolito strike clearing the bar.
But it was Villarreal who then broke the deadlock when Gomez converted inside the area from Denis Cheryshev's pass.
Within two minutes, Gomez added another with a more emphatic shot, this time firing in handsomely from 20 yards out having collected the ball from Ikechukwu Uche.
Soon after, Bruno Soriano headed Manuel Trigueros' corner wide as Villarreal aimed to put themselves out of sight.
However, there was a swift warning at the other end, with Krohn-Delhi drilling goalwards and Sergio Asenjo tipping the ball around the post.
And moments later Celta had pulled a goal back, Larrivey hitting it in low and right-footed from Nolito's pass.
The momentum appeared to be with Celta as the break arrived, Fabian Orellana shooting wide just before the whistle.
But it was Villarreal once again looking menacing after the restart, with Mario and Uche making unsuccessful attempts.
Celta regrouped and Fontas had a shot blocked before Asenjo punched away an Orellana free-kick.
But they were unable to fashion any real moments of danger in their search for an equaliser, and their hopes of doing so then suffered a blow when Fontas picked up his second yellow card.
Villarreal sought to make the man advantage count and after Asenjo caught a Larrivey header, Mario tucked away his side's third from Luciano Vietto's assist, Uche then failing to take a couple of opportunities to make it an even heavier defeat for Celta.
ends