Bayern and Chelsea lose, Barcelona are held and Manchester United are crushed. Manchester City and Levante are atop their respective leads as the new season takes on a surreal look.
France:
The big stories were the late games on Sunday as PSG pulled away with a 2-0 win over Dijon (Nene at the double), while Lille dealt Lyon's title hopes a blow with a convincing 3-1 win at home; that simultaneously gave their own challenge a huge boost. After Jimmy Briand gave Lyon the lead, the defending champions replied through Mossa Sow, Marko Basa and English winger Joe Cole. While PSG are now three points clear at the top, Lille are now third with 22 points, just four off the lead. Splitting the pair and sitting pretty in second is Montpellier, who continue their impressive form this season, this time winning 3-1 at Caen with goals from Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, John Utaka and Younes Belhanda giving them the points. Benjamin Nivet scored a late penalty consolation for the home side while both sides went down to ten men later in the game. Montpellier are in second with 23 points.
Rennes were another big winner as their 1-0 win at Auxerre moved them into fourth, ahead of Lyon. Julian Feret won the points with his 74th minute strike. Elsewhere Lorient held Toulouse to a goalless draw at home, while struggling Nancy won their first game of the season, downing Nice 1-0, with a goal from former Auxerre gunslinger Daniel Niculae. Marseille responded from their midweek loss to Arsenal in the Champions League with a solid 2-0 over visiting Ajaccio as Andrew Ayew potted a pair of goals either side of half time.
The Brittany-Aquitaine contest finished all square with Brest keeping Bordeaux to a 1-1 draw as Yoann Gouffran's opener for the Girondins was cancelled out by Eden Ben Basat. Sochaux and Evian also finished all square with a 1-1 draw as the latter edged closer to the relegation mire. In the remaining game St. Etienne won 1-0, beating Valenciennes at home. Behind the leading quartet of teams, Lyon, Toulouse and Lorient are now 5th-7th in the table; while Bordeaux are now 18th, above Nancy and Ajaccio respectively, in the bottom three. Kevin Gameiro still leads the league with eight goals, ahead of Oliver Giroud and Bafetimbi Gomis, who have seven strikes each.
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Germany:
Bayern Munich were halted a couple of weeks ago in what has been an overwhelming season of domination for Germany's biggest and richest team. This round however, the Bavarian juggernaut was overcome altogether as plucky Hannover continued to impress with a 2-1 win over their aristocratic visitors. Mohammed Abdellaoue and Cristian Pander scored the early goals as Bayern could only notch a consolation through David Alaba. Jerome Boateng was dismissed for Bayern early before being joined by Hannover's American defender Steve Cherundolo just after the hour.
Current champions Borussia Dortmund had earlier gotten their weekend off in some style with a 5-0 hammering of Cologne at home on Saturday. Shinji Kagawa and Marcel Schmelzer had put Dortmund into a two goal lead before Robert Lewandowski scored a double to put the game out of sight. Captain Sebastian Kehl then added a fifth to complete the rout. Around the league, Kaiserslautern beat Freiburg 1-0, the same score that saw Hoffenheim beat Gladbach, who dropped out of the top three. Hertha and Mainz drew goalless but Nurnberg and Stuttgart at least got on the board during a 2-2 draw. Hamburg and Wolfsburg also drew in the North, finishing 1-1, as each team got a goal from their Croatian striker, with Mario Madzukic scoring for Wolfsburg before Mladen Petric replied for the home side. Schalke notched a crucial 1-0 away win at Leverkusen with Peruvian striker Jefferson Farfan scoring the gamewinner in the 83rd minute. The Friday night game featured another draw as Bremen were held 1-1 at Augsburg.
Despite the loss Bayern are three points clear at the top with 22 points from 10 games. Dortmund are now second with 19 points while Schalke leads Hannover in third by goal difference, with both teams on 18 points. Stuttgart are fifth, Bremen sixth while Gladbach have now fallen to seventh with their second loss in three winless games. All three teams have 17 points. Augsburg, Hamburg and Freiburg are the bottom three teams. Mario Gomez still leads Klaas Jan-Huntelaarin the scoring charts 10 goals to eight.
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England:
A massive shift in both power and title momentum was felt in the North-West. The city of Manchester witnessed one of the most epochal derbies in recent memory as the blue side, of Manchester City, destroyed the red tide, of Manchester United, 6-1 in the latter's own backyard. This was Manchester United's heaviest home defeat in half a century as they were cruelly exposed and clinically put away by a confident, hungry and rampant City side. Carlos who ?
While the manner of City's win was both comprehensive and complete, and though manager Roberto Mancini must be credited for yielding such a brilliant, attacking style from the diverse mix of players on his roster; the fact remains that money makes a massive difference. Specifically massive amounts of money make a massive difference. United, no slouches to spending their way to the top themselves, have been shoved aside by an even bigger financial behemoth. One time financial bullies Chelsea, are not even in the top two anymore, such is the nature of Mancheseter City's financial outlay and the level of their domination.
Still, a red card made a difference in this game. While the opening half hour was competitive with United more than holding their own, City deservedly led through a clinical strike from Mario Balotelli. And so it ended at the break. Shortly after the restart, Jonny Evans brought down a surging Balotelli to be dismissed for a last man foul. Thereafter Bolotelli scored again on the stroke of the hour, Sergio Aguero after 69 minutes and David Silva in injury time, alongside an Edin Dzeko brace. Although Darren Fletcher pulled one back on 81 minutes, it was an insignificant drop in the tidal wave that washed away all resistance at Old Trafford. 6-1 was the final score and Alex Ferguson's humiliation was complete.
Manchester City are now five points clear at the top of the English Premiership and have put a massive wedge of goals between their difference (+26) and United's (+14) in second. This game alone was a massive six point and 10 goal swing. In the shadow of this match, the rest of the league lost a measure of relevancy but still retained the competitive intensity characteristic of the league. Chelsea also slipped to defeat at fellow West London side QPR, with an early penalty from Heidar Helguson being the difference. To be fair to the side from Stamford Bridge, both Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba were dismissed in the firt half.
Elsewhere Robin Van Persie underlined his undoubted importance to Arsenal as they beat Stoke 3-1 at home, while Liverpool would be disappointed with a 1-1 draw at home to Norwich. Everton impressed in a 3-1 win at Fulham while a Rafael Van Der Vaart double saw off Blackburn 2-1 at Ewood Park for Tottenham. Newcastle continued their good form with another win, 1-0 over a stubborn Wigan at St. James Park while Wolves and Swansea drew 2-2.
Fellow Black Country side WBA denied Aston Villa, beating them 2-1 at Villa Park in Birmingham as an early Darren Bent penalty was overturned by goals from Jonas Olsson and Paul Scharner. Bolton returned to their abysmal ways losing 2-0 to Sunderland at home. While Chelsea are still in third behind City and United respectively, they are now six points behind City and only ahead of Newcastle on goal difference. Spurs and Liverpool round out the top six, with Arsenal just a couple of points behind the latter in seventh. While their mini recovery has been most encouraging, a visit to Chelsea looms next Saturday for the Gunners.
With his goal, Aguero now joins Wayne Rooney at the top of the scoring charts with nine goals each. Behind them Dzeko has eight and Van Persie has seven.
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Spain:
Levante are the outright leaders of la Liga. Let that settle for a bit. Allow me to repeat it. After eight games, Levante are a point clear at the top of the Spanish Primera Liga. They have the most points, are unbeaten and most interestingly, have the best defence as well - they have only let in three goals. That is better than Barcelona, Real, Valencia and Sevilla. There is no question, the second team from the city of Valencia, on the south eastern coast of Spain, are on top by merit and fully deserve their lofty perch. They are by no means the best team, nor have they performed as well as the big guns of Barcelona or Real. But they have beaten those they have met or at least held firm in the face of opponents they could not overcome. Ever since their defeat of Real Madrid, they have won six games in a row, to go with their opening two draws, while making a mockery of those, this hack included, who tipped them to struggle this season.
It's still early, but it feels great to see a tiny team, with a limited roster and practically no funds, to be looking down on the rest of the league. It's a tonic too for parity, always a declining commodity in Spain, and gives other teams, who have neither money nor players, a blueprint for success. Levante's latest triumph was arguably their sweetest, a 3-0 win at Villarreal, in the late game on Sunday (no pressure), to leapfrog the big two into top spot. Juanlu first scored a double, to move to five for the season, while Ivorian Aruna Kone notched the third.
In other games this weekend, the big story was Barcelona losing steam to draw 0-0 at home to Sevilla. preserving both teams' unbeaten records, but allowing Real to move into second spot. Real were, till the end of Levante's win, briefly in top spot, having crushed moneyed upstarts Malaga 4-0 n the south coast. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick to move into a share of the scoring lead with Lionel Messi, on a rare off night for the latter, while Gonzalo Higuain notched the opener. Barcelona's cross-town rivals did much better, edging Santander 1-0 away, with a goal from Sergio Garcia as they move back into the top half with their second win in a row. Basement club Gijon also won, beating Granada 2-0 in a relegation six pointer player in the North. On Sunday, A flurry of draws saw Valencia hosting Bilbao to a 1-1 draw (Iker Muniain scoring a late goal, only for Roberto Soldado to reply even later), as did Atletico Madrid to Mallorca (Radamel Falcao and Tomer Hemed trading penalties). Sociedad and Getafe could only manage a goalless draw but Betis plunged to their fourth loss on the trot to lose 2-0 to Rayo Vallecano.
Osasuna scored a solid 3-0 win over Zaragoza in the Aragonese derby with Raul Garcia, Nino and Javed Nekounam rouding out the scoring in the first half hour alone. Osasuna and Rayo both move up several spots to sit in 11th and 12th respectively. Gijon is now no longer bottom, leading Santander on goal difference. Following Levante are Real, Barcelona, Sevilla, Valencia and Malaga. Granada remains 18th, now just one points ahead of Gijon.
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Italy:
After Saturday served up a pair of 2-2 draws, Sunday turned out to be far more entertaining. First Fiorentina and Catania traded goals as Stevan Jovetic notched a brace while Maxi Lopez scored a late leveller. Then Alessandro Matri scored his own double for Juventus but both times they lost the lead to slip up at home to Genoa, who replied through Marco Rossi and Andrea Caracciolo.
Sunday started of with tiny Lecce taking a commanding 3-0 lead at home to Milan who looked very much out of sorts, suggesting their early season form was back. However they came storming back in the second half with Kevin Prince Boateng notching a hat-trick before Colombian centre half Mario Yepes scored the winner in the 83rd minute. Guillerme Giacomazzi, Carlos Grosmuller and a penalty from Milan old boy Massimo Oddo had earlier scored for Lecce. The obituaries on Milan's season can be put on hold as it is clear they will not be giving up their title without a fight. The Rossonerri are now seventh, just four points off the league lead.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Inter ground out a stolid 1-0 win over Chievo through a Thiago Motta goal while Cagliari halted Napoli 0-0 as the southern title contenders dropped points for the second game in a row. Napoli fall to fifth. Atalanta scored another impressive win, beating Parma 2-1 away with a Maxi Moralez double too much for a late Jaime Valdes consolation. Roma also won 1-0, edging Palermo in an engrossing game off a goal from Erik Lamela.
Siena also won, beating Cesena 2-0; while a double from Antonio Di Natale either side of a goal from Maurizio Domizzi paced Udinese into the league lead with a 3-0 win over visiting Novara. In the late game, Lazio continued their good form with their fourth win in their last five games, beating Bologna 2-0 off an own goal from Roberto Acquafresca and one from Senad Lulic. Udinese, like Juventus, are unbeaten but lead the league with 15 points from seven games, Lazio are second with 14, Juventus third with 13 and Cagliari are now fourth with 13 points. Napoli, Roma and Milan are tied with 11 points. Lecce, Bologna and Cesena are the bottom three. Di Natale now leads the league with six goals, ahead of both Rodrigo Palacio and Sebastian Giovinco, who have five goals each.
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Russia has been moved to a separate feature which will appear as regular capsules.
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