EPL: In a week of the FA Cup only two Premier League matches were played and it was Arsenal, who shone in their clash with West Ham.

Entering the match, which was postponed earlier in the season, Arsenal needed to recover from their previous two losses to Chelsea and Manchester City. The Gunners started woefully, conceding to the Hammers’ Jack Collison, but Lukas Podolski equalised before the break.

However, in a mesmerising 12 minutes after the half, Arsenal turned on the style in a way seldom seen since the departure of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. Emirates fans were delighted as Arsenal scored four goals in quick succession including a Olivier Giroud brace and a delightful flick by Santi Cazorla after deft Arsenal interplay for the 5-1 win.

The other postponed match played last week, between Everton and Southampton ended goalless. In the FA Cup, Tottenham were eliminated by former English greats Leeds United who set up a fifth-round clash with Manchester City while Liverpool were eliminated by League One Oldham.

Barca bounce back

La Liga: A week after losing in the league for the first time this season, Lionel Messi and Barcelona returned with a vengeance as the little Argentine banged in four goals to help Barca dispose of third-bottom Osasuna 5-1.

Cristiano Ronaldo also had a good goalscoring weekend as he netted a hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 4-0 win over derby rivals Getafe. Fifteenth-placed Athletic Bilbao pulled off a shocking 3-0 victory over second-placed Atletico Madrid, extending Barca’s lead to eleven points.

Second-bottom Mallorca went down 3-2 to Malaga while bottom team Deportivo lost by the same scoreline to Valencia. Fifth-placed Vallecano pulled themselves to within one point of fourth-placed Betis with a 3-0 win over them.

Celta gained another valuable point in their quest for survival with a 1-1 tie at home to Sociedad.

Napoli go second

Serie A: Juventus dropped two points with a 1-1 draw with third-bottom Genoa, however, Lazio did not capitalise as they were clipped 1-0 at home by Chievo.

Napoli did not make any such mistakes as they climbed into second, three points behind Juve. Top-striker Edinson Cavani scored for Napoli with five minutes to go at Parma to claim the 2-1 win and climb above third-placed Lazio.

Stephan El Sharaawy meanwhile, regained his goalscoring form to score the lone goal in fifth-placed AC Milan’s win at Atalanta. Fourth-placed Inter are now just three points above their Milan rivals as the were held to a 2-2 draw by Torino.

Second-bottom Palermo drew 1-1 with Cagliari, who are just above the drop-zone while bottom-feeders Siena were beaten 1-0 by Udinese.

Sampdoria battered Pescara 6-0 as Mauro Icardi scored four, while the six goals in Bologna and Roma’s clash were evenly shared.

Lead up to 11

Bundesliga: With Bayer Leverkusen’s 0-0 tie with Freiburg, Bayern Munich’s 2-0 victory at Stuttgart meant that the Bavarians are now 11 points clear of their closest challengers.

Dortmund also gained ground on Leverkusen, cutting the gap to one, with a 3-0 win over Nuremburg. Fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt downed second-bottom Hoffenheim 2-1, while last place Greuther Furth were swept aside 3-0 by Mainz, who are in fifth.

Schalke, who started the season strongly but then dropped off to sixth were held by third-last Augsburg. Hamburg beat derby rivals Bremen 3-2 while Hannover were also victorious in their derby encounter, beating Wolfsburg 2-1.

Monchengladbach also beat Fortuna Dusseldorf 2-1.