Luciano Vietto's 11th La Liga goal of the season was enough for Villarreal to overcome out-of-form Eibar and win their seventh game in a row at El Madrigal this evening.
The hosts were on the front foot from the word go and could have gone ahead after 11 minutes when Joel Campbell crossed for Moises Gomez, who missed the target.
Five minutes later Campbell again set up one of his teammates, with Gerard Moreno this time guilty of wasting a good chance to open the scoring.
After riding the early Villarreal storm, Eibar managed to calm the game down, but they created very little themselves going forward.
The winner arrived in the 71st minute when Vietto exchanged passes with Giovani dos Santos and fired in a low shot that crept under the body of Eibar goalkeeper Xabi Irureta.
Gomez was close to doubling the hosts' lead, but this time Irureta made an impressive save by leaping acrobatically to keep it out.
Three points help Villarreal cement sixth place in the table, while 10th-placed Eibar lose their fifth game in a row.
Eibar have scored just once in the five defeats, while Villarreal have now kept six straight home clean sheets.
Pascal Lemesre
