Shanghai Shenhua won their second game in a row despite Carlos Tevez's absence as Gustavo Poyet's team defeated Guizhou Zhicheng 2-0 to move up to sixth in the Chinese Super League standings.
Tevez was absent once more due to a calf injury but goals from Fredy Guarin and Obafemi Martins gave Shenhua a win that moves them up to 10 points from the first six games of the season, six behind leaders Guangzhou R&F.
"I'm very happy that we won," Poyet said. "Everyone knows that we haven't been doing well in our away games, so this match was crucial to us.
"It was important that we scored first. There were a lot of opportunities for both sides before the goal and I thought we could have scored a third goal.
"The most important takeaway from the last few rounds is that we have maintained our desire to win."
Guarin put Shenhua in front with just 14 minutes on the clock and Martins doubled his side's advantage eight minutes before the half-time break to leave Guizhou in 13th place with just three points.
Guizhou, however, remain a point ahead of Yanbian Funde after the club from Jilin province slipped to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Tianjin Teda.
Tianjin overcame the loss of the injured John Obi Mikel to pick up a win that takes Jaime Pacheco's team up to 10th with eight points thanks to goals from Qiu Tianyi, Hu Rentian and Brown Ideye. Bubacar Trawally claimed a late consolation from the penalty spot.