Spurs on fire

EPL: After a disappointing showing in their opening two fixtures, the Tottenham Hotspurs have turned their form around by dropping only two points out of 24. Their latest result saw them cruise past Fulham 3-1 away with goals from Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe.

An own-goal from ex-Manchester United player Wes Brown handed Manchester United a 1-0 win over Sunderland and a win for Sir Alex Ferguson who celebrated 25 years in charge of the club on Sunday. Arsenal continued their surge up the table with a 3-0 win over West Brom thanks to goals from Robin van Persie, Mikel Arteta and Thomas Vermaelen while a 51st-minute strike from Frank Lampard helped Chelsea to a 1-0 away win against Blackburn.

Though still in the relegation zone, Bolton Wanderers got a boost in confidence with a 5-0 win over Stoke City. Chris Eagles and Ivan Klasnic both scored twice for Bolton. Champions League hopefuls Liverpool will have to refocus after failing to put away the promoted Swansea City. The game ended 0-0.

Real signalling intentions

La Liga: Real Madrid recorded a 7-1 crushing of Osasuna to cement their place atop the standings. Cristiano Ronaldo continued his goalscoring form with a hat-trick while Karim Benzema scored a brace and Pepe and Gonzalo Higuain a goal apiece.

Previous league leaders Levante suffered their second consecutive 2-0 loss, this against Valencia. Valencia were able to leap-frog Levante thanks to an own-goal from Javier Rodriquez and a Tino Costa strike. A second-half brace from Michu-powered Rayo Vallecano to a 4-0 home win over Real Sociedad.

In what can be considered a poor week for the league, no less than six of the 10 games ended in a draw. A stoppage time strike from Lionel Messi handed Barcelona a share of the points against Athletic Bilbao. The game ended 2-2 with Bilbao’s goals coming through Ander Herrera and a Gerard Pique own-goal while Cesc Fabregas scored the other for the Catalans. Real Zaragoza and Sporting Gijon also played to a 2-2 draw while the games between Mallorca and Sevilla and Real Betis and Malaga ended 0-0.

Udinese capitalise to go top

Serie A: Unlike La Liga that was studded with draws, all the games of this round had a winner. With the match between previous group leaders Juventus and Napoli being postponed due to flooding Udinese’s 2-1 win over Siena saw them move into first place after 11 rounds of matches. Dusan Basta and Antonio di Natale were on target for Udinese.

Lazio left it late against Parma but an 85th-minute strike from Giuseppe Sculli was enough to hand them a 1-0 while Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho were both on target as AC Milan recorded a convincing 4-0 win over Catania. AS Roma climbed into the top half of the league with a 2-0 away win over promoted Novara with Bojan Krkic and Pablo Osvaldo providing the goals in that encounter.

Palermo continued to hover around a Champions League place with a 3-1 win ober Bologna while Chievo Verona clipped Fiorentina 1-0. There was another postponed game of the round, this being Genoa playing at home to Inter Milan.

Dortmund climb to second

Bundesliga: A brace from Mario Gotze led Borussia Dortmund to a 5-1 thrashing of VfL Wolfsburg. The win helped them to 23 points from 12 rounds of matches and five points behind league leaders Bayern Munich. Bayern recorded a 2-1 away win over FC Augsburg through first-half strikes from Mario Gomez and Franck Ribery.

Claudio Pizzaro scored a hat-trick for Werder Bremen as they came from two goals down to beat FC Koln 3-2. Lukas Podolski was on target for the losers. A double strike from Marco Reus helped Borussia Monchengladbach to a 2-1 away win over Herta BSC and lifted them to fourth place in the league.

Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg SV played to a 2-2 draw as did Hannover 96 and Schalke 04.