Neymar hits 100 as Barca remain on Madrid's tails
Barcelona made light of the suspended absence of Lionel Messi to stay just two points from the leader of Real Madrid, while Neymar won his 100th goal for the club in 4-1 in Granada.
"The games after an international break are always special because the players travel a lot and accumulate fatigue," said Barca leader Luis Enrique.
"Playing away from home makes it even more difficult, but we have overcome these problems very well."
The Barcelona could have used the accuracy of Messi before its goal, because they managed to succeed in the first half in Nuevo Los Carmenes.
Luis Suarez's first chip attempt on Ochoa came back from the lower bar before the Mexican refused Suarez with three savings in as many minutes.
The Uruguayan finally made the breakthrough when he sent a beautiful effort on the helpless Ochoa of Jordi Alba's ball.
Granada sent Chelsea's Jeremie Boga loan to the start of the second half and took only five minutes to level, as his pace was too high for Barca's cumbersome background before moving to the corner hollow.
However, Barca took the lead 13 minutes later, when this time, Suarez transformed the provider for Alcacer to net his only goal since arriving in Valencia in August. Any chance of a renewal of Granada ended when Uche Agbo received a second yellow card at eight minutes an hour.
A few seconds later, Barca made the game safe when Ivan Rakitic drilled in the lower corner of the edge of the area. And Neymar completed the victory with his 100th goal in his 177th appearance when he hit the cross of Alcacer at the far post.
At the Bernabeu, the European champions were grateful for Alaves' squandering of the goal as they approached a first title in five years.
"Play every three days you can not always play perfectly for 90 minutes," said Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.
"We had problems, we did not play well and suddenly Cristiano (Ronaldo) gets the ball, passes it to Isco and he controls and scores." That's what this team has. We know that at any time we can hurt the opponent. "
Real suffered a wound shot within 10 minutes when Raphael Varane experienced a recurrence of a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Carvajal.
"Rafa has damaged the same area as before, it's not as bad as three weeks ago and we hope it's not a major issue." The hosts opened the gap just after half an hour, when Dani Carvajal's pace took him to the straight and he chose the unmarked Benzema to crash into the far corner.
The pace of Madrid was disrupted by the half-time whistle, although Alaves was the best side for the big spells of the second half. Deyverson headed to Theo Hernandez's line of sight before Mendez scored the visitors' best chance when he scored wide when he was not scored on the back post.
Manu Garcia's flamboyant header then plunged just beyond the far post of Kiko Casilla as the crowd of Santiago Bernabeu became agitated. However, Isco settled down when he hit Ronaldo's ball into the net roof at a narrow angle.
And Nacho gave the mark an unwarranted shine when he hit an empty net after Fernando Pacheco made a brilliant save to push the Bale free kick back on the bar.
Earlier, Sevilla's slowdown continued as they held 0-0 at home by Sporting Gijon to stay in fourth behind Atlético de Madrid due to a lower head-to-head record.