2013-2014 season: Russian Premier League is hot!

La Liga (After 5 matches)

2013-2014 season: Russian Premier League is hot!. 51174.jpeg

It's Barça and Atlético de Madrid, five games and fifteen points, followed by Real Madrid (13) and Villarreal CF (11). Barcelona came to Madrid and beat Rayo Vallecano 4-0, a hat-trick from Pedro Rodríguez; Atlético de Madrid came away from Valladolid 2-0 winners. Real Madrid saw off Getafe 4-1 and Villarreal had a goalless draw at Celta (Vigo).

Premiership (After 5 matches)

Arsenal and Tottenham, the north London duo, leap-frogged over Liverpool FC with wins over Stoke (at Arsenal, 3-1) and Cardiff, where Spurs won 1-0. Manchester City moves up into third place with a 4-1 drubbing of arch rivals United and Chelsea FC keeps up with the pack with a 2-0 home win over fellow Londoners, Fulham. Liverpool drops down from firth to fifth with a home defeat to Southampton (0-1). Arsenal and Spurs have 12 points, two ahead of Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Bundesliga (After 6 matches)

In Germany, a draw for Borussia Dortmund (1-1 at Nürnberg) and a win for Bayern Munchen (4-0 at Schalke) place both teams neck-and-neck on 16 points, with Bayer Leverkusen (4-1 winners at Mainz) one point behind.

Serie A (After 4 matches)

It's AS Roma and SCC Napoli in Italy with a maximum 12 points apiece from the first four games. Roma beat rivals Lazio 2-0, Napoli won 2-1 at AC Milan. Inter retains third place with a thumping 7-0 away win at Sassuolo, Juve beat Verona 2-1 in Torino and ACF Fiorentina came away from Atalanta's stadium with a 2-0 win. Inter, Juve and Fiorentina have 10 points.

Ligue 1 (After 6 matches)

AS Monaco storms ahead in France, isolated leader of the French Ligue 1 isolated with 14 points after 6 games (this week getting a valuable 1-1 draw in Paris at PSG). Second now is Paris Saint-Germain FC two points behind, while AS Saint-Étienne wasted the round with a defeat at home to Toulouse and remains on 12 points, now third.

Primeira Liga (After 5 matches)

In Portugal, FC Porto leads after five matches, despite losing two points away at Estoril praia (2-2) near Lisbon. Sporting drew at home with Rio Ave (1-1) and Braga beat newcomers Arouca away 1-0. FC Porto is on 13 points, Sporting CP on 12 and Braga on 11.

Russian Premier League (After 9 matches)

The Russian Premier League is HOT! Three teams share top spot on 20 points, FC Zenit Saint Petersburg and the Moscow duo FC Spartak Moskva and PFC CSKA Moskva. Fourth is FC Lokomotiv Moskva one point behind. Zenit won away at Rostov with four second-half goals by Danny, Arshavin, Hulk and Fayzulin.

Spartak received and comprehensively defeated rivals CSKA with a goal from Özbiliz in the first half and from D. Kombarov and Parshivlyuk in the second. Lokomotiv beat Dinamo Moskva away 3-1. All four goals came after the break - N'Doye opened the scoring, Noboa equalized for the home side. Samedov put Lokomotiv ahead from the penalty spot and Tkachev put the third in the net on 90+3 minutes.

Besiktas JK remains top of the Turkish Super League (12 points from 5 games) despite going down 2-1 at home to Galatasaray, Standard de Liege in Belgium is a totalist (24 points from 8 games),

In Armenia FC Pyunik leads with 12 points from 6 games; in Azerbaijan, Qäbälä leads with 15 points from 7 games; in Belarus after 24 games, BATE Borisov jumps ahead of Shakhtyor Soligorsk. BATE has 54, Shakhtyor 52 after BATE beat its main rival 3-0 away.

After 27 games in Kazakhstan, FC Aktobe has 33 points and FS Astana has 30. After Aktobe won 2-0 against Astana.

In Ukraine after 10 games, the top spot belongs to Metalist Kharkiv (26 points).

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru