Spain had little difficulty maintaining its unbeaten start to FIFA World Cup qualifying in Group G as it cruised to a 4-1 win over Israel in Gijon thanks to goals from David Silva, Vitolo, Diego Costa and Isco.

Julen Lopetegui's men did not have it all their own way and Israel did pose an attacking threat on occasion on Saturday (AEDT), but in the end Spain simply had too much for the visitors and recorded a comfortable win to remain top of the group on 13 points.

Thiago Alcantara's early effort which was kept out by the crossbar served as a warning to Israel, but it did not take Spain much longer to make its mark, Silva scoring his 29th international goal to move level with Fernando Hierro as their fourth-highest scorer.

Although Spain controlled much of the second half, it had to rely on the heroics of David De Gea to keep the lead in the 43rd minute, with Vitolo then grabbing the host's second just a few moments later to continue his strong goal-scoring start to the campaign.

Spain appeared rather more focused after the interval and looked bent on blowing Israel away, as Diego Costa headed in its third goal and Silva went desperately close to adding a fourth when hitting the post.

Lior Refaelov hammered in for Israel with a little over 15 minutes left, but there never looked to be any danger of Spain being made to rue that Silva chance and they wrapped things up with a fourth courtesy of Isco late on.