Guangzhou Evergrande made a winning return to Chinese Super League action on Saturday after the international break as Luiz Felipe Scolari's team handed Gregorio Manzano his first defeat since taking over as head coach of Guizhou Zhicheng.
But the 2-0 victory could have come at a cost with key striker Gao Lin receiving a cut above the eye that needed stitches and could keep him out of Wednesday evening's Chinese FA Cup clash with Hebei CFFC.
Gao gave Guangzhou the lead two minutes before the break and Ricardo Goulart scored 20 minutes from time as Evergrande notched up their ninth win in a row and their 11th in 13 league games so far this season to move five points clear of second-placed Shanghai SIPG, who face Guangzhou R&F on Sunday.
"Though we won the game, Guizhou deserved a draw," said Scolari, who was without captain Zheng Zhi due to injury.
"They created more chances, and we didn't have 100 percent control of the game. We have physical issues and the players were not motivated enough.
"They also couldn't deal with the pitch. There were five or six outstanding players from this team, and Manzano is an outstanding coach. This is a very promising team.
"The pitch was not ideal and it affected the players. I heard this stadium was used to host a concert, but this is a football stadium and football should come first. Chinese football needs to provide the top teams with good venues if they want to improve. I hope the Chinese Football Association can come over and see this."
Manzano's team had won two and drawn two since his arrival at the club and the loss leaves them in eighth place in the table.
Manuel Pellegrini, meanwhile, was celebrating a 1-0 win over Fabio Cannavaro's Tianjian Quanjian that ensures Hebei China Fortune keep pace with Evergrande.
Stephane M'bia scored the only goal of the game six minutes from time to keep Hebei in third, six points behind the league leaders.
Meanwhile, new Henan Jianye coach Yasen Petrov made a winning start to his tenure as goals from Zhong Jinbao and Javier Pinto either side of an own goal from Jin Hongyu gave Henan a 3-1 win over Yanbian Funde.
Carlos Tevez was on hand to help Shanghai Shenhua pick up a point in their 2-2 draw with Chongqing Lifan as the Argentinian set up Cao Yunding for his side's opener to cancel out Peng Xinli's seventh minute goal before Cao turned provider for Mao Jianqing after Alan Kardec had put Chongqing back in front.