Mauricio Pellegrino has claimed it was vital that his side ended their poor run of form to collect three points at Osasuna on Saturday.
The two newly promoted sides went head to head at the El Sadar stadium and a home win would have brought Enrique Martin's side level on points with Alaves.
David Garcia felled Theo Hernandez with thirteen minutes remaining inside the penalty area, with Christian Santos netting the decisive spot kick.
"After gaining only one point from the last twelve available, it was vital that we won this game," admitted the Argentine after the game.
"Osasuna are a very direct team and it's not easy to play against that, we competed well against their levels of aggressiveness.
"It is difficult to play against a team with five in defence and not easy to find spaces and it was a clear penalty on Theo."
