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Arsenal turned on the style at Norwich, putting point difference between them and the rest of league with four moments of brilliance. The Gunners’ team and offensive play was as good as any of Europe’s elite this season as they ran over Norwich 4-1.

There was a similar 4-1 result for Chelsea, who started much shakier at Cardiff, going down 1-0 before Mourinho’s men recovered to claim second spot in the league.

Liverpool are third after eking out a 2-2 draw at Newcastle despite a lacklustre performance from both sides.

West Ham 1 — 1 Man City

Aston Villa 0 — 2 Tottenham

Southampton 1 — 1 Man Utd

Top two falter

After starting the league flawlessly, both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona dropped points this weekend, allowing Real Madrid to tighten the difference between the teams.

Barcelona were held to a goalless draw at Osasuna, despite having a plethora of chances. Atletico then had the chance to go clear at the top, however they also couldn’t score as Espanyol shocked the second-placed ‘Rojiblancos’ 1-0.

Real Madrid would capitalise, however, beating Malaga 2-0 thanks to an Angel Di Maria goal and a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty in stoppage time.

Valencia 1 — 2 Real Sociedad

Betis 1 — 2 Elche

Valladolid 2 — 2 Sevilla

Roma forge on

Those ‘La Liga’ results now mean that Roma are the only Europe top-division team yet to drop a point. Roma faced Napoli in a top-of-the-table clash on Friday and Miralem Pjanic proved the difference, scoring a free kick and a penalty to help the Romans blank second-placed Napoli 2-0.

Third-placed Juventus were also on the losing end this week, despite being 2-0 up with less than 30 minutes to go. Giuseppe Rossi had a hat-trick as Fiorentina fought back to win 4-2.

AC Milan, however, had an important 1-0 win over Udinese in a lacklustre affair clearly suffering from the absence of the injured Mario Balotelli.

Torino 3 — 3 Inter

Hellas Verona 3 — 2 Parma

Atalanta 2 — 1 Lazio

Gotze shines for Bayern

Mario Gotze, and Thomas Muller were the stars for Bayern as they returned from the international break with a 4-1 win over Mainz. The Bavarians went behind on the stroke of half-time, however, Pep Guardiola’s men stormed back in the second.

Borussia Dortmund were far less extravagant, relying on a lone fourth-minute strike from Marco Reus to get past Hannover.

Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen maintained their third-place spot under controversy as a Stephan Kiessling’s header ‘goal’ went through a hole in the side-netting. This would prove the winner, to add further misery for the opposition after Hoffenheim’s Kevin Volland had been contentiously ruled offside. The match ended 2-1.

Braunschweig 2 — 3 Schalke

Hertha BSC 1 — 0 Monchengladbach

Hamburg 3 — 3 Stuttgart