Cristiano Ronaldo scores two, limps off

Real Madrid are back to winning habits with a 3-0 win against Granada. Cristiano Ronaldo scored two and limped off after suffering a horrendous tackle. I)n the Premiership, van Persie scored a hat-trick to give Sit Alex something to celebrate in his 1,000th game in charge of Manchester United.

In the Premiership, Chelsea FC sit on top with 9 points from three games after beating Reading 4-2. Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion and Manchester City follow on seven points. Swansea drew 2-2 at home with Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion beat Everton 2-0 and Manchester City won 3-1 against Queen's Park Rangers.

La Liga

Barcelona 1 Valencia 0, three games, three victories, 5 points clear of Real Madrid (3-0 winners against Granada). Mallorca, Málaga and Rayo Vallecano follow on 7 points apiece. Mallorca beat Real Sociedad 1-0; Málaga came away from Zaragoza with a 1-0 win and Rayo Vallecano had a goalless home draw with Sevilla.

Serie A

Three leaders with maximum points from the first two games - Juventus, which went to Udinese to win 4-1, Napoli (2-1 against Fiorentina) and SS Lazio, which received Parma and won by 3-0.

Bundesliga

FC Bayern Munchen beat Stuttgart 6-1 after being a goal down, while Eintracht Frankfurt went to Hoffenheim to win 4-0. Both teams have 6 points from 2 games.

Ligue 1

The two Olympiques, Marseilles and Lyonnais, are the early leaders in France after four games. Marseille has the maximum 12 points after beating Rennes 3-1 and Lyon received Valenciennes (3-2).

Russian Premier League

Zenit St. Petersburg (3-0 at Mordovia) and FC Terek Grozny (2-1 at Rubin Kazan) sit atop the Russian Premier, followed by CSKA Moskva (1-0 at Krasnodar), FC Anzhi Makhachkala

(2-1 at Krylya Sovetov) and Lokomotiv Moskva (2-1 against Spartak Moskva at home).

In Portugal, Benfica and FC Porto lead with 7 points each from 3 games. Benfica beat Nacional (Madeira) by 3-0 at home in Lisbon, while FC Porto came away from the difficult game at Olhanense (Algarve region) 3-2 winners with their Latin American flair present in all three goals - James Rodríguez equalising before the break, Martínez and Hulk adding two before Targino reduced on 86'. Abdi opened the score for the team from Olhão.

CS Randurii Târgu Jiu stays ahead of the pack in Romania, beating Rapid Bucureşti 2-0, while in Ukraine, phenomenal early leader FC Shakhtar Donetsk sets the pace with an amazing 24 points from the first 8 games, beating Dynamo Kiev 3-1.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru