First blood to Barça

The classic saw FC Barcelona beat Real Madrid by 2-1, with Atlético hard on the heels of the Catalan team, one point behind. Zenit are clear at the top of the Russian premier League, Arsenal top the Premiership in England, PSG and Monaco are neck-and-neck in France, with three or four teams hotly disputing the various UEFA championships this start of the season.

Photo: Barça star Neymar

First blood to Barça. 51418.jpeg

La Liga (After 10 matches)

FC Barcelona has 28 points after Neymar and Alexis Sanchez fired the Catalan team into a two-goal advantage over arch rivals Real Madrid (22 points), Cristian Rodriguez pulling one back in stoppage time (2-1). Atlético de Madrid (27 points) thrashed Betis 5-0 and Villarreal (20 points) trounced Valencia 4-1.

Premiership (After 9 matches)

 Arsenal is top with 22 points after winning away 2-0 at Crystal palace; second place goes to Chelsea FC (20 points), who beat Manchester City 2-1 in London, third is Liverpool (20), whose Suarez scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 drubbing of West Bromwich Albion and André Villas-Boas' Tottenham Hotspur is fourth (19), who beat Hull 1-0.

 Bundesliga (After 10 matches)

 FC Bayern Munchen 26, Borussia Dortmund 25, Bayer 04 Leverkusen 25. Three victories for the top three in the Bundesliga. Bayern beat Hertha 3-2, Dortmund beat Schalke 3-1 away, Leverkusen received and beat Augsburg 2-1.

Serie A (After 9 matches)

 AS Roma is first on 27 points, 5 ahead of SCC Napoli and Juventus. The leaders came away from Udinese 1-0 winners, Napoli beat Torino 2-0 and Juve beat Genoa by the same margin.

Ligue 1 (After 10 matches)

Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco have 25 points apiece, Lille is third two points behind. PSG drew 2-2 at Saint-Étienne, Monaco beat Lyon 2-1 and Lille won at Nantes 1-0.

Primeira Liga (After 8 matches)

FC Porto is first on 22 points, five ahead of Lisbon dui Sporting Clube de Portugal and SL Benfica. FC Porto beat Sporting 3-1 in Oporto, Benfica beat Nacional (Madeira) 2-0 in Lisbon

Russian Premier League (After 14 matches)

Zenit is five points clear of Lokomotiv and Spartak Moskva after 14 games. Zenit won 2-1 at Ural Sverdlovsk, with a brace from in-form Shirokov; Lokomotiv Moskva won 2-1 at Rubin and Spartak Moskva beat Rostov 2-0.

Fenerbahçe leads the Turkish league by five points (22) over Besiktas JK after all teams have played nine games.

In Armenia FC Ararat leads with 20 points from 9 games; in Azerbaijan, Qarabag leads with 24 points from 11 games; in Belarus after 28 games, BATE Borisov has pulled nine points clear (61).

After 27 games in Kazakhstan, FC Aktobe has 42 points from 31 games and is 3 points ahead of FC Astana.

In Ukraine after 14 games, the top spot belongs to Metalist Kharkiv (33 points) with a game in hand (played 13) and one point ahead of Shakhtar Donetsk.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru