Barça slips up!

Barcelona loses away at Athletic Bilbau and hears Atlético de Madrid and Real close on its heels, Atlético equal on points and Real just three points behind and oozing with attacking talent with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (injured this week), Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, to name just three of the Merengues' super-stars.

La Liga (After 15 matches)

It's still Barça, Atlético and Real 1,2,3, but with a very different aspect from last week. Barcelona remains on 40 points after going down 1-0 in Bilbao. Atlético is now equal on 40 points (2-0 winners at Elche) and Real, with a hat-trick from Gareth Bale, beat Valladolid 4-0 and has 37 points.

Premiership (After 13 matches)

Arsenal FC (31 points) beat Cardiff City 3-0 away in Wales. Chelsea moves up into second place on 27 points (3-1 at home against Southampton), while Manchester City is third two points behind (with a goal difference of +25 already) after beating Swansea City 3-0. Liverpool and Everton follow on 24 (Liverpool went down 3-1 at Hull City and Everton thrashed Stoke City 4-0). André Villas-Boas is again in the news under headlines such as "Pressure" after Tottenham drew 2-2 with Manchester United in London and has 11 goals scored in 13 games. Who can replace Gareth Bale?

Bundesliga (After 14 matches)

Bayern (38) is four points clear at the top over Bayer 04 Leverkusen (34) and Borussia Dortmund (31), all winners this weekend. Robben scored a first-half brace for Bayern without reply against Braunschweig. Leverkusen sank Nürnberg 3-0 with a bracefrom Son Heung-Min and the other from Kiessling while Dortmund won 3-1 at Mainz (the first coming from Aubameyang and then a brace from Lewandowski).

Serie A (After 14 matches)

Juventus took advantage of Roma's draw to consolidate the leading position it claimed last weekend. Juve now has 37 points after beating Udinese 1-0, Roma (34) drew in Bergamo at Atalanta's stadium 1-1 and Napoli (31) won 4-2 at Lazio's stadium in Rome (Higuaín (2), Pandev 50, Callejón).

Ligue 1 (After 15 matches)

Wins for the top three in France leave Paris Saint-Germain top with 37 points (4-0 over Lyon, two penalties from Ibrahimovic), LOSC Lille second (33) with a 1-0 away win at Valenciennes  and third is Monaco (32), 2-0 at home against Rennes.

Primeira Liga (After 11 matches)

FC Porto (24) is now third and has thrown away a lead, losing seven points out of nine in three games. First is Sporting CP with 26 points (4-0 against Paços de Ferreira) equal with Benfica (3-1 at Rio Ave). FC Porto lost 1-0 away in Coimbra to Académica.

Russian Premier League (After 18 matches)

Lokomotiv jumps over Zenit with Spartak Moskva in hot pursuit. Lokomotiv has 39 points after a 1-0 home win over Dinamo fifth, 32). Zenit (37) could not do better than a 1-1 away draw at Terek Grozny, while Spartak (36) thrashed Volga 6-1 in Moscow. CSKA in fourth place (34) drew 0-0 at Rostov.

Fenerbahçe leads the Turkish league by six points (32) over Kasimpasa SK after all teams have played 13 games.

In Armenia FC Ararat leads, 8 points clear, with 30 points from 14 games; in Azerbaijan, Nefti leads with 31 points while Qarabag is second on 30 from 15 games; in Belarus after 32 games, BATE Borisov is the Champion and is 9 points clear (67).

After 32 games in Kazakhstan, FC Aktobe is champion after finishing 1 point ahead of FC Astana.

In Ukraine after 18 games, the top spot belongs to Shakhtar Donetsk (38 points), two points ahead of Dynamo Kyiv with a game in hand.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru