French midfielder Zinedine Zidane showed he is still a great master with a magnificent left-footed strike into the roof of the net in the 13th minute, a score which came after he jinked his way past a helpless Espanyol defender.

And goals either side of half-time from Raul made sure there would be only one winner.

Raul's first came after great work from Figo in the 30th minute.

The Portuguese winger went on one of his dazzling forays into an opponents' box and struck the ball hard with his right foot. Carlos Kameni dived and made contact, but only managed to push the ball off the post and Raul pounced to double the advantage.

Raul's second came 15 minutes from the end, after an excellent cross from substitute and crowd favourite Santiago Solari.

The Spanish international reached out to tap the ball in, although it was unclear if the Espanyol defender was guilty of an own goal.

The icing on the cake for the Meringues was the late goal scored from winter signing Thomas Gravesen, the great Dane from Everton who came on 12 minutes after the restart for Zidane.

Guti battled for possession in the area six minutes from the end, the ball landed in front of Gravesen, and he struck it from the D with his right foot to the left of Espanyol keeper Kameni.

Gravesen celebrated as if he had just won the lottery, and Madrid's players joined in.

Ronaldo nearly made the margin of victory even greater when he raced into the area three minutes from time and tried to beat Kameni again but the keeper reacted well to save his club from additional embarrassment.

Madrid may not have enough time to win the title, as Barcelona are still four points clear with a game in hand - they play at the Nou Camp against Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

But the manner of their latest triumph will have left fans of the Bernabeu club believing that something good is going to happen this season because Madrid played like a war machine.

They have now romped to six consecutive Primera Liga victories under their new field marshall, Brazilian coach Wanderley Luxemburgo.

Maybe president Florentino Perez's expensively assembled squad is going to pay dividends this season.

As for the less fashionable side in Barcelona, this was not an Espanyol team that is going to be able to hold on to fourth place to qualify for the Champions League.

Iker Casillas did make a great save in the 10th minute after Ivan De la Pena passed to Maxi who struck a powerful shot.

And Casillas was brilliant again in the 22nd minute to twice deny Maxi.

A group that looked so strong defensively in the early part of the season has now allowed 18 goals in its last six games.

After Sunday's action, in fact, they may not even be in the top six depending on other results.