England
Saturday’s action in the Barclay’s premier league saw Chelsea climb atop the table with a 3-1 win over the already struggling Fulham. Particularly impressive in this win was German international Andre Schurrle, who netted a hat-trick (check out his goals here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L8iSrBxP-I). His three goals were enough to keep the blues above Liverpool in the table, whose three goal win over Southampton was not enough to top the title race, but did instead add to their ferocious 38 goal differential (that is to say they have scored 38 more goals than they have conceded). This differential is currently keeping them in second place above Arsenal. The Gunners suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Stoke City at the weekend, allowing Liverpool to come level on points but exceed Arsenal’s 24 goal differential – a crucial tie-breaker that could come into play towards the end of the season. Sitting comfortably in fourth with 57 points, Manchester City did not play a league game this weekend but rather emphatically snuffed out the struggling, possibly relegation-bound Sunderland’s hopes of winning the Capital One cup as stars Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Jesus Navas struck to ensure a 3-1 win over the Black Cats. Fifth and Sixth spots Tottenham and Everton both added three points to their struggles for a top four spot with 1-0 wins over Norwich and West Ham respectively.
Spain
Derby day on Sunday saw one of the most ferocious rivalries in European Soccer take place at the Vicente Calderon in Madrid. Atletico Madrid hosted Real Madrid and, in a fascinating fixture, held Los Blancos to a 2-2 draw. Real’s recent Balon d’or recipient Cristiano Ronaldo pulled his team level in the dying minutes after what seemed was surely going to end a famous win for Atletico. This draw ensured that Real Madrid stayed atop the Spanish Primera Division, while it forced Atletico to third place, just two points behind FC Barcelona who won emphatically 4-1 at home against Almeria. The competition in Spain continues to be a three-horse race between the Cataluynans and both Madrid based club, as all three sit 10 points above Athletic Bilbao in fourth place. The Basque based club fend off Villareal for the fourth spot, who are 6 points behind after a 1-1 draw to Real Betis at the weekend.
Germany
Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich continued to exercise their power hold on the Bundesliga as they crushed fourth place club FC Schalke at the weekend in a 5-1 victory (check out the match highlights here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au-ke8TZTW0). The Munich giants continue to add to their insurmountable 20 point gap on top of the table ahead of second place Borussia Dortmund, who, to their credit, won convincingly at the weekend in a 3-0 defeat of FC Nurnberg. Robert Lewandowski, Polish international and star striker for Dortmund, netted his 15th goal of the season – an extremely impressive statistic for having just passed the half-way mark. This win gave them an important two point lead over third place Bayern Leverkusen, who were defeated 0-1 by FC Mainz. This marked a third straight Bundesliga loss for the club, helping continue a miserable run of form in the league. After their thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munich, FC Schalke thankfully only find themselves two points behind Leverkusen for a third place spot, but sit only two points above fourth place contenders VFL Wolfsburg, who were also embarrassed in a 6-2 loss to mid-table side Hoffenheim.
Italy
Juventus climbed higher atop the table in Milan this weekend after bringing down the Rossineri in a 2-0 victory. A nice finish from Spanish international Fernando Llorente opened the scoring, but a ferocious 20+ yard strike (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt5wzD837CM) from Argentine Carlos Tevez silenced Clarence Seedorf’s men. This win helped Juve extend their lead on top of the serie A to an intimidating 11 points over AS Roma, who drew level with Inter Milan on Saturday. Roma look forward to the possibility of closing the gap with the Torino-based giants, but also look backwards towards Napoli who sit only 6 points behind them in a much closer race for second. Napoli’s efforts to catch up to Roma were unconvincing, however, in a 1-1 draw to Serie A minnows Livorno. No doubt a sigh of relief was breathed for Napoli with the defeat of fourth place club Fiorentina at the hands of 8th place Lazio, giving Rafael Benitez’s men a 7 point gap. Meanwhile, former Italian giants Inter Milan look eagerly upward from the fifth place spot, only 4 points behind Fiorentina.